Adam Scott earns playoff victory in EDS Byron Nelson Championship, his 6th on the PGA Tour

From WorldGolf.com News Services

After initially blowing a three-shot lead in the final round of the EDS Byron Nelson Championship, Adam Scott came through with a pair of birdie putts on the 18th green Sunday to pull out a victory over Ryan Moore on the third playoff hole.

First, he made a nine-footer on the 72nd hole of regulation to force a playoff. Then, after leaving birdie putts short on the first two playoff holes at Nos. 18 and 17, respectively, Scott drained a 48-footer on No. 18 that wound up giving him the victory.

Moore's birdie putt from the fringe to extend the playoff burned the edge of the cup.

"I kind of got away with it, I think, today," Scott told reporters. "A bit lucky, and certainly the putt on the third playoff hole was pretty lucky to go in."

Lucky or not, Scott closed with a 1-over-par 71 at TPC Four Seasons-Las Colinas to win $1,152,000 and move to No. 9 on the PGA Tour money list. The Australian also collected 4,500 FedEx Cup points, climbing from No. 92 to No. 12 in the standings.

It marked the sixth victory of Scott's career and his first since the 2007 Shell Houston Open.

Moore, who shot a final-round 68, has now posted a runner-up finish in each of the last four seasons. He previously finished second at the 2007 Memorial Tournament, 2006 Buick Championship and the 2005 Bell Canadian Open.

"I'm just a little frustrated I didn't make mine. That's really all there is to it," Moore told reporters when asked about missing his putt to extend the playoff. "You expect a guy like that to make a putt in that type of situation, and I was sitting there expecting it. That didn't surprise me at all."

Scott said he actually felt good about what turned out to be the winning putt. However, he admitted he needed some luck for the ball to drop.

"It looked good along the way and I thought, 'This has got a chance,'" Scott said. "And then, three feet out, ‘I thought, ‘Oh, this is going in,' and then it started diving across the front of the hole a little bit, and I thought it might not."

But it did, giving Scott a hard-fought victory. His winning score is the highest at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship since Craig Stadler's 276 winning total in 1984. For the week, just 12 players finished under par.

Mark Hensby, Carl Pettersson and Nicholas Thompson tied for fourth at 2-under 278. Brian Gay, Dudley Hart, Charley Hoffman, Kevin Sutherland, Roland Thatcher and Charlie Wi all tied for seventh at 1 under.

Scott said he was just happy to be able to hang on and win while not playing his best. The world No. 10-ranked player — the highest in the field — had a bogey at No. 1 and a double bogey at No. 5 before making a birdie at No. 7. Scott also followed a bogey at No. 15 with birdies at Nos. 16 and 18 in regulation, forcing the playoff.

While the "statement" Scott hoped to make in the final round never quite materialized, he said the positive side was that he was able to produce a victory without having his A-game.

"In the end, I think [the statement] was to myself, I could actually win it when things weren't going my way, but it wasn't quite the statement I had in mind," Scott said. "I would have liked to go out there and have played like Ryan played and won by a few, but conditions were tough and it was pretty easy to drop shots out there.

"I got it in the end, but it wasn't as pretty as I may have hoped for."

April 28, 2008