If anything, Adam Scott has one weakness in his golf game: putting. He ranked a modest 55th on the PGA Tour last year in strokes gained putting, but an abysmal 137th in one-putt percentage from inside 5 feet. It was the latter liability that lead to losing the Australian PGA Championship to Greg Chalmers on the seventh hole of a grueling, sudden-death playoff.
Scott had several opportunities to win the championship outright, which would have allowed him to savage a home-country run that, a year ago, had him a few strokes away from winning the country’s Triple Crown. He had won the Australian Masters and Australian PGA, but a final-hole birdie from world No. 1 Rory McIlroy denied him the Crown-clinching Australian Open.
In the extra frames, Scott’s putter seemed off, no more so than on the final playoff hole. Scott missed a 20-footer for birdie and the victory by going some 4 feet past the hole and outside of the lefty Chalmers’ mark for his par putt. Still his turn, Scott missed the par bid, opening the door for Chalmers to win.
It took a minor miracle for Chalmers to even get into the playoff. Chalmers carded 8-under 64 on Sunday at Royal Pines Resort to overcome a seven-stroke deficit, tying Scott and Wade Ormsby, the 54-hole co-leaders who both shot a final-round 71, at 11-under total.
Ormsby lasted three holes in the playoff, booted when Scott and Chalmers made birdie to his par. With Ormsby gone, Scott had ample chances to win but couldn’t take advantage. Chalmers won when Scott made his mistake.
It’s the second Aussie PGA for Chalmers, who won in 2011, also as part of a three-way playoff.
For Scott, who shared this week that he will become a dad in February, he didn’t lament the playoff putting but the final-round iron play that left him on the defensive.
“I didn’t hit it close enough today to the hole,” Scott said. “It wasn’t like I missed 10 footers today all day long. When you hit it outside 25 feet, there is almost the same chance you are going to three-putt as two-putt on tour. You have to hit it closer.”
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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Devil Ball Golf – Golf – Yahoo Sports
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