Adam Scott insists he won’t dwell on his latest painful near-miss as he shifts his focus to 2014 and leapfrogging Tiger Woods to seize golf’s world No.1 ranking.

Scott admitted he was “gutted” to have relinquished a one-stroke lead heading up the 72nd hole of the Australian Open on Sunday to allow Rory McIlroy to steal the Stonehaven Cup from underneath his nose.

The world No.2 began the final round four shots in front and, although it wasn’t nearly as dramatic as his collapse at last year’s British Open, Scott’s runner-up finish was eerily similar.

At Royal Lytham, Scott blew a four-stroke lead with four holes remaining after missing a series of short putts that would have sealed the deal.

On Sunday at Royal Sydney, Scott burned the hole, lipped out or horse-shoed with a succession of putts inside eight feet when he had the chance to slam the door shut on McIlroy.

“Nothing was going my way on the greens today,” he said.

“I could have put this thing away early on if the putter was behaving how it should have, how it did the rest of the week.

“But I just misjudged on the last and a player as good as Rory is going to take that opportunity.”

His second-placing cost Scott Australia’s Triple Crown after he won the Masters and PGA Championships last month.

But the 33-year-old didn’t believe his failure to join Robert Allenby as only the second player to complete a summer hat-trick of Australian majors had tarnished his magic end to the season.

“It’s been a great year obviously,” said Australia’s first-ever US Masters champion.

“I didn’t want to finish like that but, if I didn’t play any good first three days and played great today and finished second, I’d be pretty chuffed going into Christmas.

“So that’s how I should look at it. I’ll get over this tonight and look forward to a few weeks’ rest and get ready to go next year.”

Scott’s memorable summer, comprising two wins, a second on Sunday and third at last week’s World Cup of Golf, has cut Woods’ lead over the Australian in the rankings in half.

Scott will resume playing at the Tournament of Championships in Hawaii from January 2-6, with golf number crunchers estimating he’d probably need to win two tournaments on the US PGA Tour – without Woods winning one – to assume the No.1 world ranking.