KAPALUA, Maui — Who's No. 2?

It was the only question with Vijay Singh clearly sailing along to his eventual victory in the Mercedes-Benz Championship yesterday.

The answer turned out to be Adam Scott, who finished two strokes back of Singh in the winners-only tournament launching the 2007 PGA Tour season.

It's also the same question being asked on a global scale in golf.

Who's No. 2? Behind Tiger Woods?

Well, you couldn't go wrong with Scott as your answer.

Now No. 4 in the world, Scott made a strong case to move up in the rankings with his showing at the Plantation Course after coming off a year in which he posted 10 top-10 finishes, including seven top-3s, and $4.4 million in earnings.

Scott shot his third straight round of 3-under-par 69 to finish at 280. But a three-putt bogey finally ended any hopes of coming back from a seven-stroke deficit to catch Singh as they played together in the final twosome.

"I thought I was in the hunt with two to go," said Scott, who cut Singh's lead to two with back-to-back birdies at 15 and 16.

"It looked earlier on I had no chance but I kind of had a sniff standing on the 17th tee. Unfortunately (I) hit a poor second putt on 17," he said.

He had a 36-foot birdie try at 17, but rolled his first putt four feet by the hole.

"I hit a really good first putt. Actually, I thought it might go in the left side and it just rolled over, I guess four feet past. I just didn't commit on the second putt," he said.

"That was it really. Obviously, I had been looking to win. It was a good chance for me today. I got off to a bad start but it was nice to crawl my way back into things by the end."

Scott wasn't only talking about yesterday's bad start when he bogeyed two of his first four holes. But also the opening-round 73 that had him chasing Singh from the get-go.

Scott also knew that Singh, who has never finished worse than eighth place in nine Mercedes appearances here, wasn't about to make any "school boy errors coming down the stretch."

The 26-year-old bachelor with pads in Australia and Switzerland hadn't done too bad for himself either at the Plantation Course.

"Well, I do enjoy the course. I've got a pretty good record here now," said Scott, whose $630,000 runner-up check put him over the $1 million mark in three appearances here.

"It's a nice way to start the year for me. I like surfing. I come and play golf for four days, no cut, (34) guys, a lot of prize money. It's a good thing."

Unless he gets an itch before the Nissan Open in Los Angeles six weeks from now, he plans to take off until then.

That means no Sony Open in Hawai'i for him this week.

"It's time to take a break. I need to take a break," he said.

A break? Two weeks into the 2007 season?

"It is for me because when we finish the PGA Tour season, I go home to play in events in Australia after that," Scott said.

"My last event was Dec. 20 (Target World Championship) so I haven't had a break."

So Scott's quest to be No. 2 in the world behind Tiger will be put on hold for now as 16 of the PGA's top-20 money winners will try to see who'll be No. 2 this week in the Sony Open.