Shane Lowry reckons his HBC Heritage bid last weekend was the one that got away.
A winner in Abu Dhabi in December, the Clara man put himself into position to win on the PGA Tour at Harbour Hill as he went into the final round just one shot off leader Dustin Johnson.
The world number one fell away badly on the back nine of his last round - but Lowry couldn't take advantage and CT Pan claimed victory, with the Irishman finishing in joint third spot.
"Naturally disappointed but happy and proud about how I played is probably a good summation of how I'm feeling at the moment," Lowry said.
"I really feel like it's one that got away.
"I feel like I had it for the taking but it was just tricky down the stretch and it's just hard to get the job done when you've so many guys coming at you.
Shane Lowry surrenders lead to Dustin Johnson after costly back nine at RBC Heritage
"CT Pan was probably the last guy you would've picked to come through.
"I made two bad mistakes but other than that I feel like I played great all day. I'm disappointed but overall, happy with the result."
Lowry had earlier revealed that he considered pulling out of the event after failing to make the cut at the Masters the previous weekend.
Now he's glad he did. "It's funny, I felt so relaxed and comfortable all week," said the 30-year-old in his Paddy Power News column.
"After the Masters, I wasn't really pushed on playing last week and I kind of said it was a nice place to go with Wendy and Iris and we'd go down and have a bit of a holiday and play a bit of golf and see what happens.
"Maybe that's the way to approach it for me. It was a bit more relaxed and less trying to force it to do well, whereas the week before you're putting in extra practice and you feel like you're doing everything right to try and perform your best.
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"At the RBC, it was a bit more relaxed and a bit easier to get into just playing freely and not worrying, like in Augusta, about making mistakes.
"It's something that I can learn from as well and use in the future."
Lowry moved up to 43rd in the world rankings on the back of his top three finish and generally he's satisfied where he is ahead of a massive summer.
"Abu Dhabi isn't that long ago but it is quite a while at the same time in golfing terms as it's eight tournaments ago," he reflected.
"In the first nine tournaments of the year, I've won one and I've given myself a great chance and finished third in another one.
"Yeah, I've missed a few cuts but I think if someone was to tell me that at the start of the year I probably would've taken it.
"I was always say, you'd nearly rather missed cuts and have a really good week rather than make every cut and have average weeks.
"It's a funny game like that, golf. If you throw a really good week in now and then, it's a lot better than playing consistently rather than finishing 15th every week.
"You'll never remember the tournament you finished 12th in and in a few years, I won't even remember finishing third there in the RBC.
"You can only really remember the tournaments you win. You're better off being a bit more inconsistent - but when you're on, you're on".
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