By Mark Lamport-Stokes

KIAWAH ISLAND, South Carolina (Reuters) - Adam Scott says he is "fired up" for this week's PGA Championship at Kiawah Island and would dearly love the chance to bury memories of his stunning late collapse at last month's British Open.

The Australian squandered a four-shot lead with four holes to play at Royal Lytham but believes he is ready to take advantage should he find himself in contention this week on the Ocean Course in the year's final major.

"If I was in that position again, I'd feel like I'm playing pretty good," Scott told reporters at Kiawah Island on Wednesday while preparing for Thursday's opening round. "So at that point, I'd be quite confident.

"The couple of things that I took out of it (the British Open), hopefully I'd put into practice at that point and not let that happen again. It's certainly not something you'd like to make a habit of, and I never have.

"I've generally been a good closer of golf tournaments in my career. If I was in that position, I'd like to turn it around this time and close the golf tournament out."

Scott closed with a 75 at Royal Lytham to hand a one-stroke victory to South African Ernie Els but he was delighted with the superb golf he played for the first 68 holes.

"Absolutely I take a positive from it," said the 32-year-old, who has yet to win a major title. "I played maybe the best golf of my career for the whole week, really. Unfortunately I didn't get a win.

"But even with the last four holes, taking it as a whole, I played spectacular golf for such a long period of time in a major championship. That's something I've been working to do for my whole career and finally that's happened."

Scott tied for 45th at last week's WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in his first tournament back since the British Open, and felt he needed that event to get the British Open "out of the system".

He added: "I was ready to play last week, but didn't play that well and lost my rhythm slightly throughout the week with my swing.

"But I've got one out of the system after the Open, and it's certainly great to have another crack at a major so soon after. That great play wasn't that long ago, so it won't be that hard for me to find again I think."

Scott, a nine-times winner on the PGA Tour, will tee off with American Hunter Mahan and Spaniard Sergio Garcia in Thursday's opening round on the Ocean Course.

(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes; Editing by Frank Pingue)