December 19-22
RACV Royal Pines Resort, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
AUD$1,500,000
Round 1, Round 2, Round 3

Adam Scott ended a three and a half year wait for his 11th European Tour title, winning the Australian PGA Championship for the second time RACV Royal Pines Resort.

“I'm pretty stoked, actually. I grinded it out this week and I feel like I outsmarted the golf course a little bit, which feels good, and it was good enough to beat everyone.

“It's been a long time between drinks for me and maybe only once or twice did the thought cross my mind that I'll never win again. It feels very good to win here, especially to finish the year off kind of winning at home.

“I've seen what it's done for me in the past; a win. You feel like you're just never going to lose again, so you want to run with that while the confidence is up. Somehow I'll have to think that in seven weeks when I step back in L.A.

"I think it's very difficult to win. I'm on the wrong side of this age thing now where these young guys are really good and I played some pretty good golf a couple weeks this year and fell short. You know, record‑setting scores. I think the courses are getting tougher, guys are playing good. Just being alright doesn't really get you in, you've got to be pretty much sensational."

The 2013 Masters Tournament champion, who won this event that same year, started the final round one stroke ahead of a condensed chasing pack but trailed as he made the turn while New Zealander Michael Hendry made a charge.

Hendry, who was battling through a rib injury sustained earlier in the week, birdied four holes on the front nine and took the lead with his fifth gain on the tenth, but, after his sixth birdie of the day on the 16 th , he dropped to 11 under par after bogeys on the 17th and 18th holes.

“The warm-up was terrible. I honestly thought I wasn't going to get through the round. So quite honestly, my goal today was just get through 18 holes and finish the event regardless of what the score was. Lo and behold, I hit it really well.

“It was painful all day and I just kept trying to basically man up and hit the shot. Maybe that was the thing that I needed to take my attention away from what was happening on the golf course. It was more about trying to make good swings under a little bit of pain, and I made a lot of good swings.

“I'm pretty happy with the way I played considering physically what was going on. It's a shame that I didn't end up winning, but when you're not 100 percent and you're trying to chase down one of the best players in the world, you're up against it.”

It wasn't until Scott rolled in a clinical eagle putt on the par five 15 th – his third of the week on that hole – that he moved ahead once again. The 39-year-old then held on to sign for a three under par round of 69, and a 13 under par total, to finish two strokes ahead of Hendry, winning his first title since the 2016 WGC-Cadillac Championship.

Four Australians, Cameron Davis, Nick Flanagan, Min Woo Lee and Wade Ormsby, shared third place with Carl Yuan of China on ten under par.

“It was a scrappy start, I bogeyed the first two par threes, which wasn't the best," said Lee. "But I was proud of how I handled myself and I made a lot of good shots on the back nine. 17 was a little unlucky, then I hit a good shot into 18 and just missed the putt. It's just a few putts missed and I'm right in there. It's a good learning curve.

“I knew I was behind all day. You know someone is going to make birdies, so I was a little behind the eight ball. It was a good effort of me to come back after that start.”