It was all too familiar for Adam Scott.

For the fourth year in a row he had a chance late in the British Open, but a late collapse sealed his fate.

After 10 holes of the final round, the former world No.1 had surged to a share of the lead, going out on the Old Course in a sizzling 31 and making birdie on 10 to be six under on the round and 15 under for the tournament.

An hour or so later he sat at 10 under and once again without the coveted Claret Jug, five shots out of the playoff in a tie for 10th.

While a bogey on the par-5 14th hurt, an inexplicable missed one-foot par putt on the 15th completely threw away his chances.

Another bogey on the 17th and a double bogey to finish after driving the ball out of bounds dropped him further back.

Scott bogeyed the final four holes to cough up a four-shot lead in 2012 at Royal Lytham and St Annes, and was also inside the top five in 2013 and 2014 without claiming victory.

“It’s hard to digest it all at the moment. But I probably needed a really good back nine, and I had a really poor back nine,” Scott said.

“To miss a really short putt on the next, I don’t really have an explanation for that. I just went up to tap it in from a foot and it lipped out.

“Just one of those stupid things that happens, and that really put me in a tough position to where finishing with a handful of threes was unlikely on a day like today.

“I feel like I wasn’t even in it at the moment. The back nine was going to play tough, and I was going to have to go pretty much mistake free, I thought, to shooting maybe par or one under, and I was far from that in the end.

“It’s a tough finish, and I just didn’t execute the last five holes.”