British Open Leaderboard 2012: Scores and Recap for Sunday's Thrilling Finish

Adam Scott choked so hard that even Greg Norman felt bad for him.

Scott had the top spot of the 2012 British Open leaderboard locked up. His name was already on The Open Championship medal—literally. But after dominating the first three days of the tournament, on Sunday, he bogeyed the final four holes which allowed Ernie Els to leapfrog him for the W.

Jim Litke of the Associated Press reported that Scott talked about his heartbreaking letdown after Round 4 concluded. He said (via USA Today):

"

It's tough. You don't want to sit here and have to…I can't justify anything that I've done out there. I didn't finish the tournament well today. But next time, I'm sure there will be a next time, and I can do a better job of it.

"

Scott shouldn’t feel too depressed, though. He still closed the British Open stronger than this BBC reporter did. She asked a pair of brilliant questions to Scott after his collapse: How he was feeling and if his back-nine bogeys helped him (brilliant).

But anyway, Scott wasn’t the only golfer with a disappointing performance.

Tiger Woods could’ve easily taken advantage of Scott’s choke job to win the tournament. Instead, he strung together his own run of bogeys to fall short yet again. It’s now been over four years since Tiger has won a PGA Tour major.

Luke Donald almost finally lived up to his world No. 1 ranking. Like every other major in his career, though, his effort wasn’t strong enough.

Of course, Donald fared better than Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy, who were pegged as favorites going into the tournament. Westwood finished six over par, and McIlroy eight over.

But only one can win, and on Sunday, the 42-year old Els conquered the field against all odds.

Here is the final top-10 leaderboard for the British Open (via TheOpen.com):

Player	Score
1. Ernie Els	-7
2. Adam Scott	-6
T3. Tiger Woods	-3
T3. Brandt Snedeker	-3
T5. Luke Donald	-2
T5. Graeme McDowell	-2
T7. Nicolas Colsaerts	-1
T7. Thomas Aiken	-1
T9. Dustin Johnson	PAR
T9. Zach Johnson	PAR

David Daniels is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer.

Follow @TheRealDDaniels