Rory McIlroy has backed Adam Scott to recover from his heartbreaking collapse at the Open Championship.

The Australian led by four shots with four holes left in Sunday's final round at Royal Lytham and St Anne's, before imploding with bogeys on all four to allow Ernie Els to sneak a one-shot victory.

McIlroy had a similar experience at Augusta in 2011, where he blew a big lead over the course of the final day - though he didn't have to wait long to correct that failure, winning the US Open later that year.

McIlroy is now tipping Scott to do the same.

"I sort of felt like I knew how he was feeling," said the Northern Irishman.

"I just said to him, don't let the last four holes hide the fact that you played better than everyone else for the first 68.

"At that moment in time you think it's the only chance you're ever going to get, and your whole world came crashing down.

"But in reality, Adam is such a great player that he's going to have plenty of chances to win more major championships."