Adam Scott missed out on a second Australian Open title as playing partner Adrian Meronk surged to victory in Melbourne.
Home favourite Scott, the 2009 champion, held a one-shot lead going into the final round at Victoria GC but – while he struggled to a two-over-par 72 – Meronk shot 66 to win by five strokes.
Scott’s lead was gone within one hole as he made a bogey five and Meronk a birdie, the Pole backing it up immediately to go two shots clear after two holes.
"Pretty good pace… great line! That's how you finish it!" 🤯@AdrianMeronk finished his week with a winning eagle putt on the 72nd hole. #AusOpenGolf pic.twitter.com/hrbjJZCHz0
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) December 4, 2022
Scott hit back at the fourth and fifth to level but bogeyed seven and eight and again failed to get up and down at the par-five ninth, which Meronk birdied to lead once more.
The deficit narrowed with a Scott birdie at the 12th and a Meronk bogey at the next, but the latter responded at the 15th to lead by two.
He bogeyed the penultimate hole but Scott fared even worse with a double-bogey six, and Meronk finished in style with an eagle – as Scott had done the previous two days – to reach 14 under par.
He said: “I’m super excited and to finish like that on the 18th hole is just unreal.
“I’m so grateful, thank you for all the support and I enjoyed this week so much.”
Adam Scott missed out on a second Australian Open, 13 years after his first (David Davies/PA)
Scott said: “It was OK, but never really got it going when I needed to get it going. Adrian played great. He played really good.
“I think the costly part for me today was seven, eight and nine.
“On Thursday I didn’t think I’d make the cut this week so it’s nice to be able to turn it around. It would have been nice to win, but to be honest, I’m looking forward to a couple weeks of not playing golf.”
Min Woo Lee was third, a shot behind compatriot Scott on eight under, with Haydn Barron and Spain’s Alejandro Canizares sharing fourth on seven under. Irishman Conor Purcell finished in a tie for seventh at five under after a closing 71.
One week. Three winners.
A historic @AusOpenGolf comes to an end.#AusOpenGolf pic.twitter.com/JfgPqIIfJv
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) December 4, 2022
South Africa’s Ashleigh Buhai won the women’s event, finishing one stroke ahead of South Korea’s Jiyai Shin after shooting 73 on a tricky final day.
England’s Kipp Popert shot 69, 10 strokes better than overnight leader Kurtis Barkley, to win the Australian All Abilities Championship and attributed his success to an Australian delicacy.
“To be the champion here is an absolute honour,” he said. “I had three Tim Tams yesterday so there must be something in those.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here