Richard Green has fallen painfully short of adding to Australia's run of recent golf winners, losing a playoff at the PGA Tour Champions event in the US.
American Harrison Frazar birdied the first extra hole to deny Green after both players finished at 11 under par at the $US2 million ($A3.2 million) Dominion Energy Charity Classic in Richmond, Virginia.
Green and Frazar both posted Sunday 69s with the Australian the only player to record three rounds in the 60s in the first of three legs of the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs.
Alas, he had to settle for runner-up as Frazar earned his first PGA Tour Champions title, 12 years after his lone victory on the PGA Tour.
"Emotions are (at an) all-time high right now," Frazar said.
"I'm filled up with appreciation, with humbleness. I'm so happy. I'm so proud of what I've done, what (caddie Marc Lebas) has done, what my family's done and everything we've been through, especially lately."
Frazar, 52, and Green both reached the green in three shots when replaying the par-5 18th hole at the Country Club of Virginia.
But Green was on the far side of the green and missed his birdie chance, and Frazar followed that with his winning putt.
Frazar walked away from competitive golf for several years before attempting a comeback on the PGA Tour Champions after turning 50.
"You wonder if you really can do it. You wonder if you've still got it," Frazar said. "To be able to see that putt go in the hole, gosh, what a feeling."
The top 54 players in the Schwab Cup playoff race following Sunday will qualify for the second leg, the TimberTech Championship in Boca Raton, Florida.
Steve Stricker still leads that championship race by a wide margin.
Green had been bidding to follow up countryman Rod Pampling's victory at the PGA Tour Champions' SAS Championship last week in North Carolina.
He would have been Australia's third worldwide winner in the space of seven days after Min Woo Lee won the Macau Open last week and his older sister Minjee Lee took out the LPGA Tour's BMW Ladies Championship in South Korea on Sunday.
With Reuters
