LOS ANGELES, Feb 20: South African Rory Sabbatini settled for a one-over-par 72 on Sunday, but it was enough for a one-shot victory over Aussie Adam Scott in the 5.1 million-dollar Open.

Despite his final-round struggles, Sabbatini finished at 13-under 271, claiming his third US PGA Tour victory and his first since the 2003 FBR Open.

Scott charged up the leaderboard with a final-round 64, but settled for second on 272.

Craig Barlow (70) finished third at 11-under 273, one stroke in front of US veteran Fred Couples.

Even though he is atop the money list and had the best West Coast swing of any other golfer, Sabbatini wasn’t getting much recognition.

That changed on Sunday, but almost for the wrong reason. Sabbatini began the day with a four-stroke lead and made a birdie on his first hole, but then his putter abandoned him.

The lead started to dwindle when Sabbatini missed putts of five-feet or less on the third and fourth holes, and Couples closed within two shots.

Sabbatini got back to 14-under when he made a six-foot birdie on the sixth hole, but Couples birdied the next hole to keep the margin at two.

On the back nine, Sabbatini’s lead start to slip even more. Couples, who won the event in 1990 and 1992, made a birdie on 11 from three feet and cut the margin to one. On the 12th hole, Sabbatini failed to get up and down from a bunker and allowed Couples to share the lead.

Barlow joined them on the 15th hole when he converted a four-foot birdie and Couples and Sabbatini both made bogey.

The leader in the clubhouse at that point was Scott, the defending champion.

Scott was robbed of an official victory here last year when the tournament was cancelled after 36 holes but showed that his strong play at Riviera could continue through the weekend.

Scott shot a seven-under 64, including a five-under 31 on the back nine. Of his five birdies on his last nine holes, only one putt was longer than 10 feet, a 25-foot birdie on 15.

The one mistake Scott made was on the second hole and he couldn’t have realized the magnitude of it at the time.

Scott, who began the day nine shots off the lead, missed a six-foot par putt at the par-four hole.

Sabbatini closed out everyone on the 16th hole, making a five-foot birdie to secure the victory.

Final scores

271 - Rory Sabbatini 67-65-67-72

272 - Adam Scott 68-71-69-64

273 - Craig Barlow 67-69-67-70

274 - Fred Couples 66-72-65-71

275 - John Rollins 70-71-64-70, Lee Westwood 71-66-70-68

276 - Trevor Immelman 67-70-67-72, Tom Lehman 67-70-70-69, Carl Pettersson) 70-70-68-68, Dean Wilson 64-73-69-70

277 - Bo Van Pelt 70-71-67-69

278 - Tim Clark 70-67-67-74, Robert Damron 72-70-67-69, Luke Donald 69-70-71-68, Bob Estes 66-71-69-72, Jim Furyk 69-72-65-72, Billy Mayfair 66-73-70-69, Tom Pernice 69-73-68-68

279 - Geoff Ogilvy 72-71-66-70

280 - Ernie Els 70-72-71-67

281 - KJ Choi 69-69-70-73

283 - Yasuharu Imano 70-70-71-72, Greg Owen 69-71-70-73, Justin Rose 64-74-70-75, Mike Weir 71-72-70-70

284 - Angel Cabrera 72-71-70-71, Thomas Levet 68-68-77-71, Rod Pampling 67-74-70-73

285 - Stuart Appleby 68-73-71-73, Aaron Baddeley 72-71-72-70, Paul McGinley 70-70-71-74

287 - Peter Lonard 68-74-72-73

288 - Steve Elkington 72-71-73-72, Mark Hensby 74-67-69-78

291 - Jesper Parnevik 66-77-74-74

293 - Henrik Stenson 71-67-80-75.