Australian Adam Scott recorded back-to-back victories on the PGA Tour, winning for the second successful week by overcoming some closing-hole dramas to claim the WGC-Cadillac Championship in breezy Miami on Sunday 6 March.
Scott, who won the Honda Classic on 28 February at Palm Beach, began the final round three shots behind leader Rory McIlroy and fell six strokes off the pace, making two double bogeys in the first five holes including two shots that ended up in the water. However he turned his game around with a sensational run of six birdies in the next nine holes.
I really thought I blew it after the fifth hole today, Scott said afterwards. I was just trying to take stock of where things were at and salvage some kind of round after going six behind. I felt like I was going to shoot about 80 at that point after a couple of doubles (bogeys) but managed to get a couple of birdies before the turn. Thats what the goal my caddie and I said was, and that put me still in reach. And obviously Rory must have struggled a little bit the front nine too, he didnt run away so I was in it. And the new goal was to have the best back nine I possibly could and I just started hitting it close.
The 35-year-old Australian managed to get up-and-down for par after his approach shot nestled inches away from the left-side pond at the finishing hole of the difficult Blue Monster course at Trump National Doral Resort. His three-under-par 69 left Scott with a 12-under total of 276 and a one-shot win over double Masters winner Bubba Watson, who carded a final-round 68.
Watson finished second for the third time at Doral, but any disappointment might be mitigated by the fact that his runner-up showings in 2012 and 2014 were followed by wins at the Masters. World number three McIlroy made three bogeys before his first birdie at the short par-4 16th. A 74 left the Northern Irishman in a tie for third with Englishman Danny Willett, who shot a 69.
