Min Woo Lee has suffered the frustration of another near-miss, ending up as joint runner-up at the prestigious Abu Dhabi Championship behind Victor Perez after the most dramatic of finishes.
The rising Australian star almost chipped in for an eagle at the final hole on the Yas Links on Sunday which would have dragged him into a play-off with the French clubhouse leader Perez.
But his effort from a greenside bank, which went 10 foot past the hole, agonisingly didn't quite roll back down the hill into the hole, nestling a couple of inches from the pin.
It left Perez to claim the $US1.53 million ($A2.20 million) winner's cheque in one of the European Tour's biggest events, pipping Lee and Swede Sebastian Soderberg by just one shot with his winning total, 18-under par 270.
For the consistent Lee, it was a seventh straight top-12 finish - with his excellent recent sequence of results now reading 3rd, 3rd, tied 8th, tied 12th, tied 4th, 3rd and tied 2nd - but the 24-year-old from Perth is still seeking that first elusive win since he took the Scottish Open in July 2021.
Lee, who shot a final round four-under par 68 to finish on 17 under, has noted how it's taken players doing something special to deny him in these close finishes - and nothing was more dazzling than Perez's shot of his life.
For the defining moment came with the Frenchman leading by one from Lee as his ball lay in a greenside bunker at the short 17th.
Lee, in the final group, could only watch from the tee in amazement as Perez splashed out to about 10 feet beyond the cup, only for the ball to spin back viciously straight into the hole.
Perez, who ended up shooting 66, bounded out of the sand and chest-bumped with his caddie as he celebrated what his decisive two-shot cushion.
"It came up a little skinny, I'm not going to lie, but it spun back and then it was just fortunate the ball went in - it's probably the greatest shot I've ever hit," said the Frenchman, as he celebrated his third European Tour triumph, the biggest win of his career.
"I am just delighted to finish on top because it was a crazy finish - but I feel like I am used to that now!"
Lee, surely feeling his hopes had gone, then followed up by bogeying the 17th - but the drama was still not over as Perez bogeyed the par-5 final hole after driving into a fairway bunker, finding an awful lie and then hacking out almost into the water.
While Lee could be consoled with a 719,000 Euros ($A1.1 million) cheque, his fellow Western Australian Jason Scrivener also finished off a fine week's work with a bogey-free, four-under 68 earning him a joint-seventh finish at 13 under.
Padraig Harrington missed out in his bid to become the oldest European Tour winner at 51 but still wrapped a superb fourth-place finish at 16 under following a last-round 67.
