Adam Scott played extraordinary golf to post 14-underpar over the final two rounds at the WGC HSBC Champions tournament in China but was left rueing an inexplicable 80 on Friday which spoiled an otherwise impressive week.

Scott opened with a 3-under 69 at the Sheshan International golf course to be in decent position after 18 holes but things went off the rails early Friday with a double bogey at the par-5 2nd.

Two more bogeys and a second double, at the par-5 8th, saw Scott amass 42 strokes over the opening 9 and he compounded that with a 2-over back-9 to post the dreaded 80.

However, the former World Number 1 showed why he is one of the best in the game when he hit back on Saturday with a best of the day 64, the 8-under effort completely erasing the baffling anomaly of the day before.

While he was too far back to be a genuine contender after two rounds, Scott played his way into 14th position at the end of the week, his final 36 holes being easily the best in the 78-man field.

The performance also secured him top Australian honours at the end of the week despite falling as far as T61 after Friday’s poor play.

Fellow Queenslander Scott Hend was next best among the Australians, the two-time European Tour winner finishing 5-over for the week and T54.

Jordan Zunic was one shot behind after 72 holes to be T58 while Canberra’s Matt Millar finished 10-over to be T68.

Marcus Fraser struggled from the outset and at 11-overpar was T70, seven shots ahead of reigning Australian PGA Champion Nathan Holman.