Scott's World Cup hopes crash with quintuple-bogey MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Adam Scott's hopes of winning the World Cup of Golf for Australia took a major turn for the worse midway through his opening round on Thursday when he crashed to a quintuple-bogey nine at the par-four 12th at Royal Melbourne Golf Club. Scott, heavily backed to seal the title after winning two tournaments in his last two weeks, drove well right into the rough, then blasted his provisional ball into even more trouble. Unable to find his first, Scott returned to the tee and put his third drive into light rough before over-cooking his approach and seeing his shot roll over the green. Needing to get up-and-down for eight, Scott missed his putt from about 12 feet to fall back to four-over having made a steady start in benign conditions at the famed sandbelt course. Scott's nine was his worst single-hole score on the U.S. PGA Tour since he racked up a 10 at the WGC event at Doral Golf Resort in 2007. Former major winner Graeme McDowell, playing for Ireland, was another of the tournament's contenders to struggle early and came to grief at the par-four sixth with bunker trouble. The Northern Irishman blasted his drive into a cavernous sand-trap, then pushed his recovery into another greenside bunker where he was unable to take a full swing. McDowell could not extricate himself with his third shot and ended up with a double-bogey six to fall to one-over. South Korea's K.J. Choi held a share of the clubhouse lead at four-under with Welshman Stuart Manley and Scotland's Martin Laird, who had played through 16 holes. Last held in 2011, the format for the tournament has been changed from being solely a team event to primarily an individual one with a team component. Sixty players will compete for individual honors while 26 two-player teams, with Scott partnered by Jason Day, combining their 72-hole totals with the lowest-scoring nation claiming the title last won by the United States in China.