An errant tee shot and a 54-hole deficit that was a bridge too far were Adam Scott’s greatest regrets as he logged his fifth consecutive top-20 finish at a major championship at the 119th US Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links.

Despite being 0-for-7 in his career when owning the lead through 54 holes, Gary Woodland held off a courageous effort from Brooks Koepka to win a third straight US Open to claim his maiden major title by three strokes, completing the coronation with a stunning birdie from 30 feet at Pebble’s iconic 18th hole.

A 3-under par round of 68 saw Scott finish as the leading Australian in a tie for seventh at 6-under for the week but midway through his round he was in position to add to his 2013 Masters triumph.

A birdie at the par-4 3rd got momentum in the right direction and then an eagle at the par-5 6th where Scott hit his second shot from 239 yards to inside 15 feet and made the putt.

Further birdies at 9, 10 and 12 had Scott 6-under for his round and in a tie for fourth before disaster struck on the 13th tee.

The Queenslander hit just six of 14 fairways in the final round but none were as costly as the miss on 13 that went way right and out of bounds resulting in a double-bogey six.

He had eight one-putt greens through his first 12 holes but Scott propensity to miss tiddlers reared its head at the 16th hole where he missed the hole completely to the left from three feet, Scott recovering to make the return putt from seven feet.

A missed par putt from six feet led to another bogey at the par-3 17th and left the 38-year-old lamenting another near thing at a major championship.

“I made a terrible swing off the 13th hole. I don’t know why,” Scott said immediately following his round.

“I’ve played so many of these; you can never force anything at the US Open. I didn’t force it to get to where I was, I just made a poor swing.

“A little disappointing to finish at 6-under when I was standing on the 13th tee at 9-under. And of course you know that if you can just get it in the clubhouse, you never know what can happen.

“Standing here straight off the green I’m very disappointed in myself, but there was lots of good stuff this week, and enjoyable week on the golf course here for sure.”

Buoyed by his continued strong results in major championships, Scott won’t play another tournament until The Open Championship at Royal Portrush, where he hopes to go toe-to-toe with this week’s runner-up and the dominant figure in majors at present, Brooks Koepka.

“He’s definitely found the recipe to make himself perform at the big ones,” Scott said of Koepka’s title defence.

“I respect him a lot. For him to be in contention four or five times and have won four, I certainly envy that, because it’s been kind of the other way for me.

“And I look forward to the next time I’m in there. I don’t care if Brooks is there, I’m happy to have a crack at him.

“I just need to be a little bit closer going into a Sunday at one of these things. I think that’s really the big takeaway. And I’ll be working on that.

“But I like where my game is at, and I think I just have to keep working really hard at it and stay hungry.”

Jason Day produced his best round of the week on Sunday to finish tied for 21st at 2-under par with both Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith shooting 1-over 72 to finish tied for 35th and tied for 72nd respectively.

119th US Open

Pebble Beach Golf Links, California

T7           Adam Scott         70-69-71-68—278

T21        Jason Day            70-73-70-69—282

T35        Marc Leishman  69-74-70-72—285

T72        Cameron Smith  71-72-77-72—292

MC         Matt Jones          74-71—145

MC         Ryan Fox              74-73—147

MC         Aaron Baddeley 72-75—147

MC         Daniel Hillier (a) 76-73—149

MC         Marcus Fraser    73-79—152

MC         Brett Drewitt      77-76—153