Rory McIlroy has suffered his second near loss at St Andrews in recent months, finishing two shots behind Ryan Fox at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
The World Number 2 started the day eight shots off the lead but clawed his way back into contention before faltering near the finish line.
Fox trailed overnight leader Ryan Mansell by four strokes at the beginning of play on Sunday, but Mansell had a day to forget, carding a disappointing 76 and ended up in a tie for seventh place.
At The Open back in July, McIlroy was the leader that was hunted down by the chasing pack. On Sunday, the roles were reversed with McIlroy stalking the leaders from afar.
A superb front nine coupled with a collapse from Mansell had the Northern Irishman in the thick of things midway through the back nine. However, a demoralising par on the reachable Par-5 14th hole halted his momentum, while a bogey on the legendary 'Road Hole' 17th put an end to his charge.
A 66 for six-under par left McIlroy at 13-under for the tournament, two strokes behind eventual winner Fox. The crafty Australian played magnificently on Sunday, carding seven birdies and three bogeys to finish on 15-under par, one stroke ahead of Alex Noren and Callum Shinkwin.
“I did everything I wanted to do but didn’t make birdie on 14, which halted the momentum and it was a bit of a struggle on the way in and it was nice to birdie the last,” said McIlroy.
“Once I birdied 13, the two birdie holes coming in were 14 and 18 and I thought if I could get one more, that’s what I wanted to get to, but not birdieing 14 was a momentum killer and then 17 was playing pretty tough.
"I came up two or three short of my target at the end.”
Padraig Harrington, McIlroy's playing partner for the day, had an excellent round, shooting 2-under par and securing a tie for 17th place. It was a disappointing week for recent BMW PGA Championship winner Shane Lowry who missed the cut.
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