Els, Scott found a bunker off the tee and his ball ended up tight underneath the lip. He was only able to pitch out sideways. For his third stroke he played an iron shot to leave himself with an eight-foot par putt to take the championship to a playoff. Scott narrowly missed the putt on the outside edge of the hole, resulting in another bogey to finish the round. Scott shot a final round of 75 to finish at six under, one stroke behind the champion Ernie Els. Scott's collapse down the home stretch was compared to many other famous golfing collapses down the years including fellow countryman Greg Norman at the 1996 Masters. After the round Scott said that his finish was down to finding some bad positions on the course, rather than nerves. He also said "I'm very disappointed but I played so beautifully for most of the week I really shouldn't let this bring me down. I know I've let a really great chance slip through my fingers today, but somehow I'll look back and take the positives from it." With his second-place finish, Scott equalled his best ever performance at a major championship, alongside his tied second at the 2011 Masters and he returned to the world's top 10, at number six. Rest of 2012 Scott's first appearance after The Open Championship was at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, where he attempted to defend his title from the previous year. He ended the week in a tie for 45th place. The following week, Scott was again in the mix at the PGA Championship, entering the final round in the penultimate grouping, four shots behind the leader Rory McIlroy. In good conditions though, Scott shot an over par 73 to drop back into a final position of T11th. On 18 November, Scott fired a bogey-free final round at Kingston Heath in the Melbourne Sandbelt, to win the Australian Masters for the first time. He trailed defending champion Ian Poulter by one going into the final round, but shot a 67, including a birdie on the last, to don the "Gold Jacket" for Masters champion. 2013 Scott opened the season at the Northern Trust Open, well into February of that year. He finished the event T10th with three rounds under par. He then played the two World Golf Championships consecutively, losing at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in the opening