Scott coasts to ten shot victory

Australian Adam Scott eagled two of the last three holes to win the Scottish PGA championship by a massive 10 strokes Sunday and claim his third European Tour title, his first in Europe,

Scott's closing nine-under-par 63 took him to 26-under-par 262 and broke three European Tour seasonal records as he carried off the $256,000 first prize.

The margin of his win from second-placed Raymond Russell of Scotland was the highest by two strokes and his four-round aggregate under par was four better than Jose Maria Olazabal's victory in December's Hong Kong Open at the start of the season.

Scott's 63 to close was also the best finish by a winner this season, beating Olazabal's finale in Hong Kong by a stroke.

Just for good measure, although Scott did not equal the course record because of preferred lies, he won the $5,000 Rolex watch on offer for the best round of the week.

The 22-year-old from Adelaide was in no mood to falter as he did Saturday when early mistakes allowed the field to close in on him, and his three birdies on the front nine left him out of reach.

Russell briefly cut his five-shot overnight lead to three with two opening birdies, but Scott soon pulled away, even when 49-year-old Sam Torrance stepped in to provide his closest challenger.

Another birdie on the 12th kept Scott's momentum going and, as Torrance bogeyed the 17th to hand second place to fellow-Scot Russell, the Australian extended his win in exhilarating fashion as he rammed home 30ft eagle putts on 16 and 18.

That scintillating run took him within a stroke of the best aggregate on the European Tour set by American John Daly last year in Munich at the BMW International and by Canadian Jerry Anderson at the 1984 European Masters, Swiss Open.

BLISTERING FINISH

Scott ran away from the field by bringing the PGA Centenary Course par-fives to their knees and his blistering finish was typical of the week as he finished 22-under-par for the 20 par-fives alone, seven-under-par for the five long holes in the final round.

The young Australian acknowledged his stunning finale, saying: "When you're hot you're hot. Maybe it is winner's luck. You quite often see guys run away with it in the end when there's just no real pressure.

"Today panned out as I hoped. I wanted to dominate the par-fives and stay comfortable and I did that."

Scott's first win came in last year's Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa and he followed up with victory in the Qatar Masters in March.

But he had a special reason for winning in Scotland, and not just because he missed out on the clashing WGC-NEC Invitational in America after dropping out of the world top 50.

"It was important to win in Britain and the continent of Europe, because my other wins were in perfect weather and on Friday here when the weather was not great I played beautifully.

"I can draw a lot of confidence from this the next time I'm in big tournaments over here.

"My goal is to try to build my game so it is good enough to play anywhere, at the Masters, the U.S. Open, anywhere.

"After missing out on the NEC, one reason for me to come this week was to win and play my way back into the top 50.

"I feel like I should be up there."

While Scott moved up to number eight on the European rankings and still has a chance of carrying off the Order of Merit, Russell's second place sealed his card for next year.

The Scot had languished 133rd on the money list but has now surged to 57th.

Torrance, son of Russell's coach Bob, joked after securing his best finish since his 1998 French Open win: "My dad would have wanted Raymond second because he gets a cut of his prizemoney and gets nothing of mine!"

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