Shane Lowry lamented his triple bogey on 4 at Augusta but took pride in his fighting Irish comeback to finish in joint third place with Cameron Smith at the Masters.
Lowry picked up a cheque for €800,000 for finishing on -5 for the first major championship of the year, two shots behind Rory McIlroy in second spot and five back from imperious victor Scottie Scheffler.
It was his best-ever finish at Augusta and while he admitted it felt like 'so near and yet so far' after that early disaster on the par 3 knocked him back to level par so early in his round, it is 'onwards and upwards' after an impressive comeback
"Look, I've got fight," the Clara man said. "I've got determination, and I'm never going to stop trying.
"I'm out there giving it my best, and I just kept on telling myself that was only one swing. I made a great up-and-down on 5 and made a great birdie on 6, and that kind of got me going again.
"To be honest, I felt like I was somewhat out of the tournament, but you just don't know how it's going to go.
"I thought maybe I could shoot 6 or 7-under from there, but Scottie has obviously gone down and done his thing, and he is the best player in the world at the moment, and he has come out to play.
"And when the number one player in the world comes out to play his best, he is hard to beat.
"It is quite pleasing to do what I did and finish the way I did is very pleasing, yeah. But it's going to be one of those where it's like so near and so far type thing.
"I don't know how many chances you're going to get to win the green jacket.
"It is a bit of a disappointing kind of feeling right now, but obviously, my finish was really good, and I played some great golf all week.
"I've got so many positives to take from it, and, yeah, it's kind of onwards and upwards from here."
Lowry, 33, has a major title under his belt - his 2019 Open Championship triumph at Portrush - and used his experience to great effect after the hammer-blow of that triple bogey that was caused by a disastrous tee-shot into the trees on the right.
The setback wiped out a classy start to his Masters Sunday, after he had picked up an early birdie on the par-5 second and had just missed with birdie putts on the first and third holes.
"You know, I just kept telling myself, I opened up today lovely," he said. "I played the first three holes lovely, and I just tried to be a bit clever on the fourth and try to hit a 3-iron up in the air.
"It was just a horrendous shot. I didn't hit too many more bad shots the rest of the day.
"The big thing I can take away from the last two days being in contention around here is how comfortable I felt on the golf course. I'm proud of myself to the way I handled myself and especially when things went against me today.
"To shoot 5-under for the last 13 holes was pretty good."
Asked if he believed that he could claim the green jacket for himself after his performance this week, Lowry replied: "I think I have believed that I can do whatever in this game. I just have to allow myself to come to these tournaments and do it.
"Look, this week coming in I was playing such great golf. My form was really good, and I felt very comfortable, so I'm hoping next year when I get back here, I'll feel the same and give it another go. Who knows what shape my game will be in this time next year?
"Who knows? You just don't know. I hope I come in here next year with the form I've had this year, and I might give it a good go again, but it won't be from the lack of trying.
"This is obviously my first weekend out there in the heat of it, and like I said, I felt very comfortable."
Overall it was a great weekend for Irish golf, with the top three finishes of McIlroy and Lowry - the former goes to number seven in the world, the latter to 30th - and Seamus Power produced his best round of the week, a two-under par 69, to finish in the top 30 on his Masters debut.
"Seamus is probably the one that will take the brunt of that because people will be wondering when he is going to win one now," smiled Lowry.
"Look, great to have four Irish people here this week. Paddy (Padraig Harrington) was unfortunate to miss the cut. Seamus got to play the weekend.
"Weekend golf out here is way different than practice rounds. You learn a lot from it. Yeah, myself and Rory second and third. Maybe. Yeah, it's pretty nice for Irish golf."
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