Adam Scott has seemingly thrown away his chances at the lucrative Players Championship after a poor third round at TPC Sawgrass.
Starting the day just two shots off the lead, Scott shot a two over par 74 to fall to four under for the tournament and into a tie for 14th, eight shots behind sole leader Kevin Na (68) who is 12-under.
Fellow American Matt Kuchar (69) sits a shot back in second place at 11 under while young gun and last start winner Rickie Fowler (66) sits third at nine-under par.
Scott’s day started poorly with an unforced error on the first hole.
After piping his drive down the middle his approach wedge was short and sucked back off the green with the end result being a bogey.
A bounce-back birdie on the second should have steadied the ship but when he lost his tee ball right on the fifth hole into a water hazard and took double bogey his tilt was looking precarious.
But rather than be rattled Scott was actually steeled by the mishap and tried to fight back.
He made a clutch 14-foot par save on the eighth, birdied the ninth, did so again on the 11th and was ready for a run.
The Queenslander gave himself four straight birdie looks from around 20-feet from the 12th hole onwards, not easy by any means but considering he is second in putting from 15-20 feet on the US Tour and 11th from 20-25 feet, he was miffed one wouldn’t drop.
The last, on the 15th, actually resulted in a three-putt bogey.
A birdie on the 16th gave him a chance to stay steady but a 10-foot birdie miss on the 17th and a disastrous double bogey on the last killed his hopes.
Scott’s drive barely stayed dry down the left side but nestled against the bulkhead giving him a precarious stance.
Unable to put a full swing on his approach without falling into the lake, Scott just punched the ball forward 30 metres.
His approach then found a grass bunker, a flop shot fell short and he two-putted from the fringe for a six and a 74.
“Doubles are just so costly in this event and it was just unnecessary to finish that way,” Scott said.
“Overall it was a frustrating day for me, particularly on the greens.”
Geoff Ogilvy (70) was the only Australian to post an under par round, moving to three under for the tournament in a tie for 27th.
Marc Leishman (even), Robert Allenby (+3) and Rod Pampling (+5) round out the Australian effort while Tiger Woods (72) couldn’t get anything going on moving day leaving the 14-time major winner at two-under in a tie for 34th.