Marc Leishman flirted with glory at the Farmers Insurance Open in California today before fading to finish T20.
The Victorian finished the best of the four Australians to make the cut at Torrey Pines, near San Diego, with Cameron Smith (T33) continuing his good form and veterans John Senden (T64) and Cam Percy (T71) also banking a cheque.
But it was Leishman, whose third-round 68 had catapulted him into title calculations, fired birdies on the fourth and sixth holes to momentarily share top billing on a congested leaderboard.
That position was short-lived, however, as a series of errors on the long par-four seventh ended in a double-bogey that ultimately proved his undoing.
The Warrnambool golfer birdied the 13th after a superb bunker shot to inside 30cm on the par-five, but pressing on the back nine he bogeyed the tough 15th and found a watery grave on the 18th.
Leishman’s closing 73 left him at six under in total, seven shots adrift of rising Spaniard Jon Rahm who made two stunning back-nine eagles to roar from the pack and finish 13 under with a blistering 65 for his first US PGA Tour triumph.