Chris Wood could not hide his disappointment as he finished second for the third time this season at the KLM Open.
The Englishman entered day four at The Dutch with a one-shot lead and he had extended that to three after 11 holes as he looked set to secure European Tour win number four.
A double-bogey after finding water off the tee on the 12th halted his momentum but he led by two after a birdie on the 13th before China's Wu Ashun made gains on the 14th, 15th and last to edge ahead.
That left Wood needing a birdie of his own on the 18th and while he got on the green at the par five in two, three putts meant it was Wu who was celebrating his third European Tour win.
Wood has spoken of how he has made a lot of changes to his game recently but he refused to use that as an excuse as he added to his second-place finishes at the NBO Oman Open and HNA Open de France.
I know I’m still trying to make a lot of changes with my swing this is tough to take at the minute - Chris Wood
“I am gutted,” he said. “I just hung in there all day and hit a couple of bad shots but apart from two tee-shots I didn’t really miss a shot today.
“Although I know I’m still trying to make a lot of changes with my swing this is tough to take at the minute.
“I’m not one to look at what’s going on. I just try to stick to what I do, although I did have a quick look on the last to get an idea of what I needed to do and I was just trying to hole it. My putting has been so good all week and it’s just a shame that it let me down at the last - I didn’t want to go back up the 18th.
“I knew before that things were going in the right direction but when you get a chance to win you want to take it.”
Thomas Detry finished a shot behind Wood at 14 under as he ended his remarkable weekend with a closing 66.
The Belgian had set off driving home on Friday only to discover he had in fact made the cut and he returned to Spijk to fire a course-record equalling 63 on Saturday.
“What a week,” he said. “Thinking I was missing the cut then going home on Friday and coming back to shoot eight under, then to follow that up with another good score in front of what feels like a home crowd today feels amazing.
“On Thursday I wasn’t too happy with my game and felt that a weekend off might be good but here I am finishing in the top three so I am very pleased with the way I bounced back.”
