Adam Scott lone Australian in PGA Tour Championship after one-shot loss in Colorado

Adam Scott’s four-year winning drought on the PGA Tour continued after an agonisingly close run in Colorado, but he still achieved a major goal.

Adam Scott was so close to breaking his US PGA Tour drought. Picture: Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Adam Scott headed to Colorado with a surge up the FedEx Cup rankings and securing his spot in the season-ending Tour Championship his main goal.

He did that but the 44-year-old was left to rue two plain weekend rounds at the BMW Championship as he let slip his chance to end a four-year winning drought and add close to $5.3m to his stratospheric career earnings.

Scott, who fell a single shot short of US Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley, who scored a memorable win, will be the lone Australian in the final 30-man field for the final tournament of the year in Atlanta.

He also picked up $2.2m for his efforts, jumped to No.21 in the world, and is once again the highest ranked Australian.

A Sunday surge from Cam Davis, who shot a closing round of six-under 66 to jump into a tie for fifth, lifted him 13 spots on the FedEx Cup rankings, but it was only enough to finish 36th.

Jason Day, who was in the top 30 when the playoffs began at the St Jude Championship in Memphis, faded badly after his trip to Paris for the Olympics, with a tie for 22nd followed by a tie for 33rd at Castle Pines Golf Club to finish 33rd overall and miss his chance for a final payday.

All three Aussies do however loom as inclusions for the International team for the upcoming Presidents Cup, with Scott and Day automatic selections, while Davis, and possibly countryman Min Woo Lee, should make it as captain’s picks.

Automatic qualifiers are locked in 🔒
 
Meet the first six members of the @PresidentsCup International Team.
 #IntlTeam | #PresidentsCuppic.twitter.com/8qCiVhYMJA

— Presidents Cup International Team (@IntlTeam) August 25, 2024

After blitzing the field on Friday with a course-record round of eight-under 63 to take the lead into the weekend, Scott said he had a “rollercoaster” third round that “kind of blew it for me”.

He joined Bradley on top of the leaderboard with an eagle to begin his final round but had four back-nine bogeys and was unable to bridge a consistent two-shot gap on Bradley, which finished as a one-shot deficit.

But given his starting position on the rankings, to get to the Tour Championship was something for him to smile about.

“Really, I’m disappointed not to have won today, but I’m pretty happy to be going to East Lake because that wasn’t on the cards a couple weeks ago. I’ve played well,” he said.

“You know, after a couple days of rest and getting my head into next week, it’ll be fun to go and have a couple good rounds and kind of find my way up the leaderboard at East Lake.”

Bogey start yesterday, eagle start today 💪

Adam Scott leaps into a tie for first @BMWChamps. pic.twitter.com/W3pA0UTRTg

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 25, 2024

Scott said there was a sense of pride in playing in his way into the final event of the season against the world’s best players, having also set up his 2025 campaign with automatic inclusion in eight “signature” events with a prize pool of $240m to play for.

“You kind of grind all year and then finally the last four events my game has really turned around and looked solid,” he said.

“A lot can happen in a few weeks out here, and all of a sudden I’ve gone from a very frustrating year had I not finished well to now feeling pretty pleased with myself.

“But it’ll be fun to go and run the tables next week.”