Ernie Els came within 2,4m of lifting his second British Open title and taking his Major championship tally to four.
But his birdie putt on the 72nd hole at Royal Troon slipped centimetres wide, forcing the world number two into a playoff with unheralded American Todd Hamilton.
The American won and Els admits the missed 2,4m-shot to lift the Claret Jug only two years after his first Open title will haunt him.
”Right now I’m thinking of the putt on the 72nd hole,” said the 34-year-old minutes after his dramatic four-hole shootout with Hamilton on Sunday.
”That’s the putt I’m going to be thinking about for a while,” he added.
The miss was a bitter blow to Els who admits his whole career is built around winning Majors.
In April he had his first green jacket snatched off him by Phil Mickelson on the 72nd hole when Mickelson sank a birdie putt to deprive Els by a single shot.
In June he had a chance of winning a third US Open title when he went out in the last group paired with Retief Goosen.
But it was Goosen who came to grips with a Shinnecock Hills course that the driving wind and sun had baked to near concrete.
As Goosen went on to win, Els crashed to a closing 80.
”Losing any major is hard,” said Els. ”I was in a similar position in April and I played well that time. I felt I played well this time but I didn’t quite play the playoff well enough.”
On Sunday at Royal Troon, playing the way it is meant to — wind and sunshine — Els arrived at the 10th tee sharing the lead with Hamilton at nine under par for the championship.
But within one hole, Els found himself forced into playing catch-up when he double-bogeyed the 10th after an erratic ball into the rough.
Els fought back and was only one down when he got to the 18th tee.
Hamilton hit his drive into the right rough, hacked it into the left rough and then needed to get down.
The bogey got Els into the playoff but 38-year-old Hamilton was not going to make the same mistake twice.
Again he arrived on the 18th one up. This time he made a regulation par and the Claret Jug was his.
”I always new Todd was a good player. I knew what a good player he was and he wasn’t going to back off,” said Els. ”I’ve got to give a lot of credit to Todd. He hung in there, he played really awesome. I just came up a little short.” — Sapa-AFP