Golf: Scott's broomstick no help in bid to brush aside his putting blues

Defending champion Adam Scott helps Bubba Watson into his green jacket. Photo / AP

Adam Scott might want to ditch the long putter before he is forced to.

The defending Masters champion could have easily contended for a second green jacket had his broomstick co-operated at Augusta National.

Despite being eighth in greens in regulation, Scott putted poorly, ranking in a tie for 42nd of the 51 players who made the cut. It left the Aussie nine shots off champion Bubba Watson and tied for 14th.

He three-putted five times over the four days and missed numerous makeable birdie putts. The 33-year-old missed from inside three-feet on a handful of occasions, including a terrible effort on the opening hole in round three that missed by at least two cups left, kick-starting a front-nine 40, the nine holes Scott believes cost him. "It's not been my best week with the putter. My pace was off on the long putts and when it gets on fire around here, you're going to have a lot of long putts," he lamented.

"And I left so much work with them, that nothing was tap-in distance.

"I missed my share of them and had some three-putts and it just makes it very hard to have really good scores every day around here.

"The story of my weekend was some sloppy stuff around the greens, and that doesn't bode well here."

The only putt of note he made was a 30-footer down the hill on the 72nd hole to give the patrons one last reason to cheer the outgoing champ.

Despite the disappointment of his assault and missing his third chance to take over as world No1, Scott said he'd take plenty away from his return to Augusta National.

"I've enjoyed the week thoroughly. I mean, it's been a week I'll never forget, the experiences I've had in playing a tournament as the defending champion and as a champion, and all the ovations that you receive around here are amazing memories for me," the world No2 said. "I was really happy with where I put myself on Friday night and without over-analysing, it was a poor nine holes on Saturday that stopped all my momentum and had me on the back foot. I just couldn't go anywhere from there and that's what it's like at majors.

"You're nine good holes from winning it and nine bad holes from being out of it."

Scott's next chance to be world No1 will come in early next month at the Players Championship.

- AAP