Putting kills Scott’s chances at Augusta

Adam Scott might want to ditch the long putter before he is forced to.

The defending Masters champion could have easily contended for a second green jacket had his broomstick co-operated with him this week at Augusta National.

Despite being eighth in greens in regulation Scott putted poorly, ranking in a tie for 42nd of the 51 players who made the cut.

It left him nine shots off champion Bubba Watson’s pace and tied for 14th.

He three-putted five times over the four days and missed numerous makeable birdie putts.

The 33-year-old missed from inside three-feet on a handful of occasions, including a terrible effort on the opening hole in round three that missed by at least two cups left, kick starting a front-nine 40, the nine holes Scott believes cost him the most.

“It’s not been my best week with the putter. My pace was off on the long putts and when it gets on fire around here, you’re going to have a lot of long putts,” Scott lamented.

“And I left so much work with them, that nothing was tap-in distance.

“I missed my share of them and had some threeputts and it just makes it very hard to have really good scores every day around here.

“The story of my weekend was some sloppy stuff around the greens, and that doesn’t bode well here.”

The only putt of note he made was a 30-footer down the hill on the 72nd hole to give the patrons one last reason to cheer the outgoing champ.

Despite the disappointment of his assault and missing his third chance to take over as world No.1, Scott said he’d take plenty away from his return to Augusta National.

“I’ve enjoyed the week thoroughly. I mean it’s been a week I’ll never forget, the experiences I’ve had in playing a tournament as the defending champion and as a champion, and all the ovations that you receive around here are amazing memories for me,” the world No.2 said.

“I was really happy with where I put myself on Friday night and without over-analysing it was a poor nine holes on Saturday that stopped all my momentum and had me on the back foot.

“I just couldn’t go anywhere from there and that’s what it’s like at majors.

“You’re nine good holes from winning it and nine bad holes from being out of it.”

Scott’s next chance to take over world No.1 will come in early May at the Players Championship.

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