The confident strut turned into a walk of resignation by the time Rory McIlroy, seeking a first win of the season, reached the 18th green in the final round of the WGC-Cadillac Championship as the 26-year-old Northern Irishman was forced to play second fiddle to Australian Adam Scott.

In backing up his win in last week's Honda Classic with another victory in the Cadillac, Scott – defying the enforced switch from the broomhandle back to the traditional short putter – revved up his own aspirations for another green jacket at next month's US Masters with a finishing round of 69 for 276, 12-under-par, that gave him a one-stroke winning margin over Bubba Watson.

Scott showed resilience and fortitude in spades in securing back-to-back wins, recovering from two double-bogeys in his open six holes to bounce back into contention and ultimately to finish the job. He became the first player since Pádraig Harrington, in last year's Honda Classic, to record two double-bogeys on his card and still go on to win a tournament.

A run of five birdies in seven holes – including a hat-trick from the 10th – transformed Scott’s round. And he showed his character on the 18th when, after driving behind a palm tree, his approach was fortunate to stay out of the pond by the green and he successfully got up and down from inside the hazard line, sinking a seven-footer for par, to stay a shot clear of Watson.

“This is such a wild golf course in (windy) conditions, I thought a great back nine (after the double bogeys) might be enough,” said Scott.

Trump handshake

For McIlroy, who started the final round with a three-shot lead, there was a sense of what might have been. Having finished his preparations on the range with a handshake from US presidential hopeful Donald Trump, the owner of the resort, McIlroy failed to find any spark and had only one birdie - on the 16th - to go with three bogeys in a closing 74 for 278 that left him tied-third with England's Danny Willett.

In advance of his round, McIlroy had talked of how comfortable he felt with this new putting grip: “I feel like the putting is becoming instinctive. I definitely think the first day, I was focusing more on the technical side rather than the feel side. But I think that just comes over time, playing more rounds, hitting more putts and getting a little bit more comfortable . . . It’s felt for the most part instinctive and I haven’t really thought about the comfort of my hands on the grip.”

Ironically, McIlroy had talked of how he was struggling to find and retain momentum for much of the season. As he put it, “I think golfers, we don’t win very often. We always have to try and look at the positives in things, and the positives over the first few tournaments of this year for me is I’ve been making a lot of birdies . . . but I’ve just been sort of like two steps forward, one step back type of thing.”

Approach play

Unfortunately for McIlroy, his main problem in the final round concerned poor approach play which was emphasised by a failure to get any approach shot inside 30 feet on his opening 11 holes. And bogeys on the seventh and ninth saw him turn in two-over with a further dropped shot on the 13th putting him three shots at that point behind Scott who recovered brilliantly from two double-bogeys in his first six holes.

Graeme McDowell endured something of a roller-coaster ride in his final round that came to a spluttering and ultimately nightmarish conclusion, as his 75 for 290 included a finishing quadruple-bogey eight.

The Northern Irishman had earlier suffered double bogeys on the seventh and 10th only to bounce back with a run of birdies on the 12th, 15th and 16th before suffering what’s termed a “snowman” in the trade when registering an eight on the last.

“Played lovely all day despite a couple of doubles then Oooops #bluemonstered #Game is in nice shape. We will solider on,” tweeted McDowell after finishing his round in tied-28th.

For Shane Lowry, it proved to be a disappointing weekend on the course with Saturday's 75 followed by a final round 73 that left the Offalyman on 292, four-over, in tied-35th place. Lowry suffered a double bogey seven on the 10th when his tee shot found water although he managed to keep any further high numbers off his card as he birdied the 12th and 16th and bogeyed the 15th.