Adam Scott – file photo
Adam Scott has recorded his best PGA Tour finish in more then six months and his second best since winning this same event two years ago with a share of 4th place at the Genesis Invitational at the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles.
For Scott is continued a very successful relationship with Riviera having won the event on two occasions and finished twice runner-up.
Scott began the final round brilliantly as he attempted to chase down the tearaway leader Joaquin Niemann who he trailed by ten shots at the start of the day.
Scott eagled the first and then birdied the 4th and 6th holes and by the turn he had reduced the ten-shot margin to just five but a bogey at the 10th slowed the momentum. Although he would add another eagle at the 17th, the 41 year old would eventually finish five shots behind the winner Niemann and three shots from the share of second place recorded by Cameron Young and Collin Morikawa.
The massive purse of US$12 million means Scott will walk away with US$540,000 for his share of 4th with Viktor Hovland.
For Scott the week reinforced his love of the Riviera Country Club; “That’s a nice way to finish,” he opened referring to his eagle at the 17th. “I have good feelings around here and, like everything, seems a little bit easy.
“Even though I wasn’t winning this week, even the bad stuff didn’t get me down so much. So it’s nice when you’re out on the course with like a really light-hearted vibe. This place does that for me.”
Scott takes some good form into the next few weeks leading into Augusta National and he referred to a current satisfaction with his game.
“When you’re playing good, it’s generally easier to kind of process what happened out there for the week. There’s not too much bad. You’re not needing to rebuild at this point. I think I’m working on all the right things. I wouldn’t change anything much, but just a little more practice and hopefully it keeps kind of embedding itself into my routines out there and I make a few more putts and a few less bad shots and hopefully be winning soon.”
Matt Jones and Marc Leishman were the next best of the Australians when they tied for 15th, New Zealander Danny Lee was 21st, Cameron Smith 33rd and Cameron Davis 48th.
For Danny Lee the finish comes after four consecutive missed cuts on the PGA Tour and hopefully reverses a trend which has seen him slip outside the top 250 in the world.
