Adam Scott wins Australian Masters

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Having started with a four-stroke lead, US Masters champion Scott increased that buffer to five when he birdied the 3rd hole but firstly his playing partner Vijay Singh and then later Kuchar ensured the Queenslander would not have it all his own way.

World number eight Kuchar actually led by two strokes when he birdied 15 and Scott double-bogeyed the 14th in what appeared to be a costly three-shot swing for the last-start Australia PGA Championship winner.

But Scott responded with a birdie at 15 and found himself level again moments later when Kuchar bogeyed 16 before Scott's solid pars over the final three holes were enough to get him home as Kuchar's double bogey at the 72nd hole cost him dearly.

With the World Cup to come this week at the same venue, Scott will then head to Sydney for the Australian Open in December looking to match Robert Allenby's 2005 effort when he won the Australian PGA, Masters and Open in the same year.

Scott joined Greg Norman as the only back-to-back winners of the Masters - Norman did so in 1989-90.

Scott's final-round 71 saw him finish the tournament at 14 under, two shots ahead of his American rival Kuchar (68), who had been six under for the day through 15, while veteran Fijian Singh finished with a 71 of his own and outright third on minus 10.

Singh got to within two strokes of Scott's lead during the final round but three successive three-putt bogeys from the 7th cost him all momentum and the 50-year-old's charge was all but over from that point.

First-round leader Nick Cullen, whose twin Dan played one Test for Australia in 2006, finished an impressive week with a 72 and fourth on nine under, three clear of Kiwi Ryan Fox (73) and local Matt Griffin (75).

Victorian Marc Leishman signed for an impressive 65 to share seventh with Aron Price (68), Jason Scrivener (69), Mathew Goggin (69), Geoff Ogilvy (69) and Zimbabwean Brendon De Jonge (73) on five under.

Joint 36-hole leader Nathan Holman faded on the final day, shooting 78 to finish 15th on minus three, while Jarrod Lyle's comeback to competitive golf after a second battle with Leukaemia saw him close with a 79 and a tie for 57th on plus eight.

With superb iron play over the first three days Scott threatened to shoot a low score like the 63 Singh managed on Saturday but during the final round he had to regularly scramble on plenty of occasions, minimising the damage to two bogeys at the 5th and 7th holes.

There were other times he managed clutch pars and shaved the hole with another host of birdie putts while at 17 he struck the flag with his approach but it was his steadiness under pressure over the closing holes that would prove crucial as Kuchar was unable to close it out.

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