Defeat cannot dampen buzz surrounding Adam Scott

He may have missed on the Australian triple crown at Royal Sydney, but being Adam Scott still isn’t too bad a gig Adam Scott of Australia Adam Scott of Australia after missing a putt to the 18th green on the final day of the Australian Open at Royal Sydney Golf Club.

Even without a second Australian Open and the fabled triple crown, Scott has been the best Australian golfer with a bullet shot from Goldfinger’s gun.

So yes, top golf from a tip-top player, and McIlroy’s 5-under 67 was a hot round, reining in Scott’s four-shot lead like Sharky Norman hauling in a massive tuna onto the deck of his 500-foot fishing boat.

As Geoff Ogilvy said in the Emirates marquee after his round of 1-over (-2 for the championship) yesterday, even though you haven’t played super golf, you are still playing golf.

After all the practice and travel and hotel check-ins, your life would appear to be: play preternatural golf; get adulated within an inch of your life; drive away in a flash car to a flash hotel to eat flash food with flash people before flash women attempt to squeeze their womanly bits between the closing glass doors of the elevator to your penthouse apartment with glittering Harbour views.

Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland (L) and Adam Scott of Australia (R) prepare to putt in the final round of the Australian Open.

At pristine Royal Sydney this week, until 18, Scott scorched the very earth with Australia’s best golfers.

In describing Scott’s work and the crowds that stood 10-deep to see him, Golf Australia CEO Stephen Pitt twice used the term “phenomenal”.

Outside November, or Scott and Day contending in Majors, golf in Australia struggles for column inches.