Adam Scott wins again!!!! Cadillac Championship this week, Honda Classic last week….#WhiteHot
Posted by Golf Australia on Sunday, March 6, 2016
Adam Scott’s magical early-season form continued today with a spectacular victory in the World Golf Championship Cadillac Championship in Miami.
Scott, 35, banked his second successive PGA Tour win after last week’s Honda Classic triumph, holding off Bubba Watson to win by a shot at Trump National Doral with a memorable up-and-down for par on the closing hole.
Scott’s win, even more remarkable after two early double-bogeys, will move him to No.6 in the world again and leapfrog the Queenslander to the head of the FedEx Cup standings.
But it wasn’t smooth sailing – right until the bitter end.
Scott blocked his drive into the first cut of rough up the savage closing hole where he was partially blocked by surrounding palm trees, then held his breath as his approach flirted with water left as the slice for which he played didn’t eventuate.
The ball had plenty of momentum when it careered long and left, but held up in the thick rough of the hazard, leaving him 12m from the hole.
Coolly, though, Scott flopped his lob wedge approach to 2.5m and nailed a knee-knocking putt to great joy and relief – just as he’d done last week after overcoming a quadruple-bogey to win just up the road at PGA National.
“I think I’ve used my experience to advantage these past couple of weeks and realised that around these tough courses, although you never want quads and doubles, you’re not out of it,” he beamed.
“It was such a challenge out there today, I knew if I could just get a couple of (shots back) before the turn maybe I’ll have a chance and everything fell the right way for me today, especially up 18 with that ball to stay up.
“I hit (my final approach) right where I aimed it – I had to aim it right there because the tree was right in my line to go to the green – (but) I thought the wind was strong enough and it would cut, but it didn’t cut at all.
“But I hit it so well it flew the hazard and then I was so lucky for it to stay up inside the hazard line.
“And when you’re that lucky you’d better get it up and down.”
Earlier, Scott opened brightly with a birdie, but twin double-bogeys on the third and fifth holes dropped him as far as six shots behind overnight leader Rory McIlroy.
But Scott remarkably maintained his composure with six birdies from that point to steamroll the field with a final-round 69 to finish at 12 under.
McIlroy couldn’t find a birdie in the final round until an up-and-down from the greenside bunker on the short par-four 16th.
Watson became a three-time runner-up at Doral despite a great closing 68 and holding the lead outright early on the back nine before Scott made his winning run.
The former world No.1 was simply superb with his mid-irons en route to his 13th US PGA Tour victory.
He made spectacular approach shots to several tough par-fours on the back nine, including to tap-in range on the 11th and 14th where several other contenders dropped shots.
The 2013 Masters champion almost fell out of the top 20 a little more than a month ago, but a runner-up finish at Riviera and two consecutive victories have him back in discussions about top major contenders.
He is the first person since Tiger Woods to win back-to-back- tournaments on the PGA Tour’s “Florida Swing” in 2001.
Scott clearly had one eye on the Masters next month when asked if his best was as good as anyone in the world.
“I feel my game’s been (good) the last couple of weeks and where I’d like to keep it for the next few weeks as well,” he said.
“But you’ve gotta push yourself so hard to beat the class of player who’s out here right now and I really can’t believe I’ve won back-to-back weeks (and) to win a World Golf Championship is huge again.
“I’ve just got to keep pushing hard the next few weeks.”
It was Scott’s 13th top-10 finish in a WGC event and his second victory after the 2011 Bridgestone Invitational in Ohio.