Adam Scott’s play at the Arnold Palmer tournament will be rightly overshadowed by the extraordinary performance of Jason Day but the 2013 Masters champion will take plenty out of his T12 finish in Florida.

Two loose swings on the 18^th hole over the weekend cost Scott the chance to be a legitimate contender but, as he has done all year, he dealt with the adversity brilliantly.

Saturday’s triple bogey at the difficult finishing hole seemed to have little effect on Scott as he raced to 5-under-par through 16 holes of his final round before once again falling victim to the tough par-4.

A double bogey on Sunday meant Scott played the hole 4-over for the week, half the deficit between he and Jason Day at the end of 72 holes, but with the Masters looming Scott must be among the favourites.

While his driving accuracy was less than stellar (Scott found just over 67 per cent of the fairways versus a field average of 69 per cent), his iron play was among the best with just shy of 70 per cent of greens found in regulation.

Most encouraging, though, he gained .261 strokes on the field for the week on the greens and with numbers like that his chances at Augusta National are good.

Scott, Day and Marc Leishman were the three Australians to make the cut with Leishman also impressing with a top-20 finish.

A Saturday 74 was the undoing of the Victorian as he played his way to an 8-under total, one behind Scott, and a T17 result.

Opening rounds of 67-70 looked to have Leishman on track for a repeat of his 2011 performance where he finished T3 but the birdies dried up in Saturday’s rainy conditions.

Leishman managed just one birdie in the third round, at the short par-5 16^th, with three blemishes putting him too far back heading to Sunday to be a realistic chance.

He, too, though will like his form heading to Augusta National where he has played some of his best golf in the past.

Being forced to miss the tournament last year because of the illness of wife Audrey will make this year’s event even more special and Leishman will be keen for Masters week to roll around.

Rookie Ryan Ruffels and reigning Australian Open champion Matt Jones both came within a whisker of playing the weekend, both finishing at 1-over through 36 holes and one shot outside the number.

For Ruffels an ugly double bogey at the eighth hole of round two, his 17^th of the day, was the fatal blow while Jones couldn’t recover from a poor start to Friday when he opened with three straight bogies.

Aaron Baddeley was also in trouble early, an opening round 76 proving too much for the Victorian to overcome despite a 2-under 70 on Friday.