Adam Scott held off the challenge of Danny Willett and Rory McIlroy to emerge from a pack of five on the final day and claim the title at the WGC-Cadillac Championship yesterday. Scott’s closing 69 and 12-under par aggregate of 276 was just enough to see off Bubba Watson, his nearest challenger, and Phil Mickelson in a tournament that went all the way to the 18th green.
Scott, last week’s winner of the Honda Classic, made his decisive par after driving right behind a palm tree and he was fortunate to see his approach stick precariously on the bank of the pond left of the green. The pitch was delicate and beautifully played though, expiring six feet and eight inches from the cup. And the winning putt was right in the middle.
“I’ve used my experience to my advantage the last couple of weeks,” said Scott. “On these tough courses even making doubles doesn’t mean you are out of it. It was such a challenge out there today. I knew if I could just get a couple of birdies before the turn I would have a chance. And everything fell the right way for me today especially on the 18th when the ball held up just short of the water.”
All five of the main protagonists will feel they had legitimate chances to grab the $1.6 million (about £1.12 million) first-place cheque, but surely none more than McIlroy. Three shots ahead overnight and sent on his way by a handshake and a brief chat with a man named Trump, the former Open champion was four clear with twelve holes to play but then succumbed amid a sad smorgasbord of poor shots and putts. Amazingly for one so obviously gifted, McIlroy made one birdie in his two-over par 74, one day after he had played the same Trump National Doral course bogey-free.
Perhaps even more disquieting was that the lack of red numbers against his name was not the result of missed chances. Instead, McIlroy did not give himself decent opportunities. Only three times did he put for birdie from inside 30 feet, an astonishingly mediocre statistic for such a talented ball-striker.
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“I just didn’t make enough birdies,” was McIlroy’s predictable conclusion. “It was frustrating, but I’ll take some positives from this. Today I didn’t take advantage of the holes I should have. I couldn’t birdie any of the par-fives and that’s what really killed me today. Now I just need to pick myself back up and get into contention again at Bay Hill in a couple of weeks.”
In contrast to McIlroy’s obvious disappointment, Scott deserves huge credit for a winning performance that began with two double bogeys — both the result of unscheduled visits to water hazards — in his first five holes. Standing on the sixth tee, he was as many as six shots off the lead. Seven birdies surrounded those uncharacteristic errors, however, underlining the fact that the 35-year-old Adelaide native is the hottest golfer on the planet. In the last three weeks his record now reads: second, first, first.
Watson’s round of 68 was the reverse of Scott’s. Not until the 14th did the eccentric two-times Masters winner drop a shot, when he failed to get up-and-down from a greenside bunker. But a pedestrian even par for the last six holes proved to be one shot too many. Watson will now, however, be looking forward to next month’s Masters with much anticipation. Both times he has won at Augusta, in 2012 and 2014, he was runner-up here.
Willett, the Yorkshireman who appears a certainty to make his Ryder Cup debut this September, clearly relished the breezy conditions. Blessed with a brisk, punchy action through impact, Willett sent shots piercing through the wind. Birdies at the first, seventh and ninth took him to the turn in 33 and that would have been one shot lower but for a miss from 31 inches on the par-five eighth.
Coming home, a bogey at the 11th slowed Willett, birdies at the 12th and 16th taking him within a shot of Scott. It was, however, a gap that doubled when the winner of the Dubai Desert Classic last month pulled his drive into the pond at the 18th. The bogey that soon enough followed was a sad end to what was a brave challenge.