Rory McIlroy sees positives despite frustrating finish at Doral

Rory McIlroy was left disappointed with a final round of 74 which saw him slip out of contention in the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral.

The world number three had led by three strokes going into the final round but failed to fire on Sunday, allowing Adam Scott to take the trophy.

McIlroy admitted he was frustrated to let another opportunity slip through his fingers having finished 20th in the Northern Trust Open a fortnight ago after sharing the lead with 16 holes to play.

“I didn’t make enough birdies,” McIlroy said. “I felt like my game was okay for the most part, but I didn’t take advantage of the holes I should have. I couldn’t birdie any of the par fives and that’s really what killed me today.

“I’ll take a lot of positives from this week. A lot of things didn’t go right for me, but I need to just pick myself back up and get into contention again in Orlando in a couple weeks’ time and let’s see if I can get the win there.

“It’s frustrating because it’s two out of the last three weeks. I was leading the golf tournament with 16 holes to play in Riviera. I was leading the golf tournament here going into the back nine, and to not get the job done in either two of those instances is very frustrating.

“I’ve got two events left to try to get that win before going to Augusta and I’m hopefully going to get it.”

McIlroy finished two strokes behind Scott, who made it back-to-back PGA Tour victories.

Asked how he had pulled off his 13th PGA Tour title, Scott told Sky Sports: “I don’t really know. This is such a wild golf course in conditions like the wind was today.

“I made a couple of horrible errors on the front nine but you can’t give up hope and I thought if I can get a couple (of birdies) before the turn, maybe a great back nine is good enough if things go my way and they did somehow. It was messy and my golf wasn’t that pretty today either.

“Somehow I started feeling a bit like I did last week and the swing came under control, the rhythm came back and I started hitting iron shots close, almost so close you couldn’t miss them which was nice.”

Scott won the Masters in 2013 using a long putter and reached the top of the world rankings in May 2014, but has successfully reverted to a conventional club in order to comply with the ban on anchored strokes which came into effect on January 1st.

“I have been working hard on my putting and couldn’t ask for a better way to test myself, a six-footer to win a World Golf Championship event,” he added.

“I can’t believe I have won back to back weeks out here and to win a WGC is huge. Somehow I need to bottle this up and keep it another four or five weeks through the Masters and that would be amazing to get myself into contention there and have a chance.”

Meanwhile Danny Willett finished with a 69 to finish tied with McIlroy in third place, he said: "It is another good week. Being up there in contention on the back nine at a World Golf Championship is stepping in the right direction.

“I played pretty good golf for most of the week. It was a bit scrappy in there, but it was nice that when I played scrappy I dug in and kept rounds going. It’s easy out there making a few bogeys to shoot four, five, six over par quite comfortably but I dug in every day.

“If someone had said 10 under par at the beginning of the week, I’d have taken it. It’s a really tricky golf course, and the wind today obviously played its part more than any other day.

“You can look back and say you lost by two, but over the course of the week, I’ve got a lot out of the game, so I can’t be too unhappy.”