ORLANDO – In the immortal words of Adam Scott, uttered nearly a year ago on a dark and rainy Masters afternoon: C’mon, Aussie.
Only this time, insert a somewhat scolding tone. As in: C’mon Aussie, make a putt.
As the days bleed down to a precious few before the next Masters, and these other tournaments begin serving as preambles to the season’s first major, Sunday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational was quite useful.
It provided for the defending champion a warning that he may need to take that flagpole of a putter in for repairs before he returns to Augusta for his encore. This was Scott’s tournament from Thursday’s first tee shot, as he shot a first-round 62 and built as much as a seven-stroke lead by the weekend. He lived on the fat of that until the back nine Sunday.
Entering the final round with a three shoot lead over Keegan Bradley and four up on someone named Matt Every, Scott was playing for a global dominance as well. Winning here would have vaulted him over Tiger Woods to the No. 1 world ranking. His to-do list was lengthy.
Shooting a 4-over 76 was not on the agenda.
Thanks to this tournament, they’ll also be letting out the Masters invitation list a little more. It was Every, every bit the everyman, a 30-year-old grinder born just 60 miles east on I-4 from here in Daytona Beach, who leap-frogged Scott and Bradley to win his first PGA Tour title. That comes with playing privileges at Augusta National in two weeks.
The tears built in Every’s eyes outside the scoring trailer, shortly after he signed for his Sunday 70 and Bradley missed a 25-foot putt on No. 18 that might have forced a playoff.
“I can’t believe I won. I really can’t,” he said. Before he was most noted for his 2010 Tour suspension after a marijuana possession arrest (the charges later were dropped).
“Being close to winning out here (he was twice a runner-up), it can be kind of discouraging because if you don’t win you just wonder if it’s ever going to happen,” Every, the one-time Florida Gator, said.
Every’s Augusta National resume: Been there once, never played it. “There’s so many new things I need to learn. No expectations,” he said.
The expectations all lived with Scott. His last, best chance to bother Every came on the par-5 16th, when, with Every watching from the next tee box, he put his second shot to within 19 feet. An eagle there would have moved Scott back to a tie for the lead, a birdie at least would have made palms a little moister. Instead, Scott three-putted.
“Obviously not the outcome I wanted today,” Scott said. “I wanted to play a great round and kind of run away with this thing.
“But it’s clear what I have to work on for the Masters,” he said referring to his putting.
Tech’s Hadley still on Masters Bubble
With a finish of fourth or better at the Palmer Invitational, former Georgia Tech player Chesson Hadley could have moved safely to within the world’s top 50, earning a spot in the Masters. But, beginning the day tied for fifth, he tumbled to 26th with a final-round 79.
The winner of second tier Puerto Rico Open earlier this month, Hadley will have one more opportunity to improve his ranking — 59th as of Sunday — at this week’s Valero Texas Open. He could have skipped that event with a better finish here.
“A pretty crappy day,” the 26-year-old Hadley said.
“Unfortunately it’s a learning experience that happens to everybody. I was just burning money out there. I’ll tell you that will never happen to me again. I’m better than that.”
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