Lord Byron smiles down on Australian

IRVING -- He began the day with a three-stroke lead, and in anticipation of Adam Scott's presumably certain EDS Byron Nelson tournament victory, the Irving Convention & Visitors Bureau snapped into action.

It ordered 100 Australian flags and draped its viewing point with the Aussie colors to greet Scott as he walked triumphantly to the 18th green.

Kind of like that 2006 Mavericks victory parade.

By the time, alas, Scott reached that 72nd green Sunday, his lead was gone and his 11th-hour decision to play in the tournament was looking like a weekend wasted.

"It would have been a tough defeat," the 27-year-old Aussie confessed.

But put another gripping Nelson finish on the barby, mate.

Over the next hour or so, Scott rolled in not one, but two dramatic, clutch birdie putts -- the final one traveling 49 feet -- and the EDS Byron Nelson Championship again had a crescendo finish.

Maybe the lord of the tournament, Byron Nelson, who passed away in 2006, hasn't really left after all.

By Scott winning over Ryan Moore on the third sudden-death playoff hole, the Nelson is reasonably assured of having the world's No. 10-ranked player -- the young golfer that coach Butch Harmon called the "most likely to challenge Tiger Woods" -- back to defend his title in next year's event.

And he may well entice pedigreed company. The field at this year's Nelson was lackluster in marquee names, but lavish in its praise of the TPC Four Seasons Las Colinas course's makeover.

Tony Navarro, hereafter to be known as "The caddie with the Caddy," predicted that "at least four" of golf's top 10 will participate in the tournament next spring.

"This is what top golfers are looking for," said Navarro, who earned a Cadillac for being the winner's caddie. "A good test, but a fair test."

As the gray and chilly St. Andrew's-type day began Sunday, however, Scott's comfortable lead threatened to make it a dull finish. This was the new Nelson golf tournament. No traffic jams along MacArthur Boulevard. No overflow, surgically enhanced galleries.

No Byron and, hence, no Tiger. No anyone, for the most part, until Scott decided that his game had more to gain by being in Irving than back in Australia.

No Australian golfer has ever won the Masters. Scott's drought extends to all the U.S. major championships, which puzzles not only Harmon, but also all of the golf fans and pundits who seem convinced that the Brisbane native isn't just another pretty face.

Scott's entire year had been structured to perform well at Augusta. But he started the Masters tournament by bogeying three of the first five holes, shot an opening round 75, and had to rally to finish in a tie for 25th. Somehow, Scott wasn't discouraged, though.

"I know when I'm starting to play well," he said Sunday. "And I really felt at Augusta that I played as well as anyone did the last three days. My score certainly doesn't represent that, but I hit the ball beautiful there."

The late decision to join the Nelson field may or may not have come with some friendly PGA arm-twisting, but Scott saw the wisdom in it.

"I felt like this was not a good time for me to sit at home and wait a couple of weeks," he said. "I didn't need to fine-tune anything. I just needed to get out here."

Rounds of 68, 67 and 67 ensued. Flags were ordered. Scott admitted that it was time to stop squandering tournament leads and to make a bold statement.

But by the fifth hole Sunday, which he double-bogeyed, Scott's lead had evaporated to one stroke.

"It wasn't quite the statement I had in mind," he said.

On what the flag-waving Irving convention folks thought was supposed to be Scott's coronation hole, the 18th, he had to roll in a bold nine-foot birdie putt, just to send the tournament into a playoff.

Three cat-and-mouse extra holes followed.

"I was getting a little concerned," Scott said. "I was throwing away opportunities to win."

All week long -- all fall and winter long, for that matter -- the Byron Nelson Championship had struggled to carve its new identity. Attendance was down. Household names were minimal.

In a week where the Mavericks, Stars, Cowboys and Rangers all were making headlines, the golf tournament had been forced to the back news pages.

When, all of a sudden, the brightest name in the Nelson field rolled in a Hollywood, 49-foot putt.

The crowd roared. The Australian flags waved. The caddie went home with a Caddy.

You'll have to convince me that Lord Byron didn't have anything to do with it.