When you’re golf’s third best player on the planet, you’d probably expect to make a four to five metre putt for birdie.

Especially when you’re given four cracks at it.

That was the scenario Adam Scott faced as he tried to defend his Australian PGA Championship in a dramatic seven-hole playoff at Royal Pines on Sunday.

Four times Scott was left shaking his head as his putts failed to fall.

His profligacy caught up with him when he then missed a regulation four-foot putt for par to hand victory to Western Australia’s Greg Chalmers.

Putting has long been the one weakness in Scott’s otherwise immaculate golf game.

His decision to switch to the broomstick putter may have brought him the 2013 US Masters crown but that club will be outlawed by the start of 2016.

Sunday’s playoff defeat was a continuation of a tournament-long struggle on the greens but Scott won’t be using his off-season to switch back to a short-handle putter.

Instead he says the woes had more to do with his approach than anything else.

“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.”