Danny Willett takes positives from near-miss in Doral as Adam Scott wins back-to-back titles

Willett stood one behind leader Scott playing the 18th at Doral, but after finding water with his drive could only make par and had to settle for third place.

The Yorkshireman's anguish will have been nothing as compared to that of Rory McIlroy, who squandered a four-shot lead to finish tied alongside Willett.

Scott carded a closing 69 that featured two double bogeys in the space of three holes, a shank and seven birdies to finish 12 under par, one shot ahead of double Masters champion Bubba Watson.

Willett closed with a 69 while McIlroy struggled to a 74 featuring just one birdie. It was the first time McIlroy had failed to convert a lead of three shots or more after 54 holes into a win since collapsing to a closing 80 in the 2011 Masters.

Starting the day three shots behind McIlroy, Scott closed the gap with a birdie on the first before seemingly falling out of contention by finding water on the third and fifth to run up a pair of double bogeys as the Blue Monster course lived up to its name.

However, the 35-year-old bounced back with birdies on the sixth and eighth and started the back nine with three more in succession, before another on the 14th took him into a two-shot lead.

Willett and then Watson closed to within a shot with birdies on the 16th and 17th respectively, while Scott amazingly shanked a bunker shot on the short par-4 16th, but crucially scrambled a par.

Scott's approach to the 18th was then just a few feet from finding the water to the left of the green, but the former Masters champion hit a superb chip to six feet and holed out for a dramatic victory.

Asked how he had pulled off his 13th PGA Tour title, Scott said: "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 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 1.

"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."