• Australian holds off Woods and Rose for win
• Second win of the year for Masters champion
Masters champion Adam Scott closed with a bogey-free five-under 66 to steal victory in the opening US PGA Tour play-off event on Sunday.
Scott posted in at 11-under par early at The Barclays on Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey with a host of big name challengers hunting him down, but no one could reel in the Australian. His second win of the year pushed the Queenslander to second on the play-off standings with three events left and to a career high No.2 in the world rankings.
Scott finished one clear of world No.1 Tiger Woods (69), US Open champion Justin Rose (68), Canadian Graham DeLaet (65) and American Gary Woodland (73).
Woods battled a bad back all week and went within a whisker of birdie on the last, Rose three-putted the final green from 25-feet for bogey and Woodland had a 10-footer to force a play-off but missed to the left.
Open Championship winner Phil Mickelson (65) and fellow Americans Jim Furyk and D.A. Points shared sixth at nine-under.
Scott finished well over an hour before the final pairings and figured his total wouldn't be enough, especially after missing a 20-footer for birdie on 18. But his birdies on five, six, seven, 14 and 16 saw him through.
"I can't believe it to be honest," Scott said. "I played a good round today and came in and really didn't think I had a chance but obviously things went my way a lot out there and I'm so happy.
"No bogeys is always a good thing. I took advantage of a few good shots and the couple poor ones I hit I managed to scramble and save par.
"That always adds up to a pretty good score."
Scott dedicated his 10th US PGA tour win and 21st worldwide triumph to new niece Olivia who was born on Saturday to sister Casie and brother in law and coach Brad Malone.
While they didn't threaten the leaders on Sunday Greg Chalmers (-2, T37) and Stuart Appleby (-1, T41) did just enough to push inside the top 100 on the season-long points list to qualify for next weeks Deutsche Bank Championship.
Chalmers moved to 93rd and Appleby to 96th but it is the end of the road for Aaron Baddeley (Even, T43) John Senden (+4, T62), Geoff Ogilvy (+5, 65th) and Steven Bowditch (cut) who weren't able to finish high enough.
Baddeley's finish was hard to watch, as he bogeyed the final three holes to shoot 77 and miss next week by a single place at 101st.
Ogilvy ends his season at 104th, Senden 109th and Bowditch 124th.
Jason Day was the next best Australian behind Scott at four-under in a tie for 25th, leaving him at 16th on the points list while Matt Jones rounded out the Australian tilt at three-under in a tie for 33rd leaving him 37th in the standings heading into next week.
Meanwhile Bronson La'Cassie continued a huge day for Australian golf, winning on the secondary Web.com Tour to clinch a PGA Tour card for next season.
