KUALA LUMPUR: More often than not, shooting a 27-under over four days in a tournament would be enough to win you a golf title.
Unfortunately, that was not the case for Malaysian golfer Gavin Kyle Green as he had to be content with a runner-up finish at the European Tour's Portugal Masters, despite barely putting a foot wrong all day.
Gavin signed off the tournament with a masterful seven-under 64 comprising an eagle, six birdies and a bogey to finish with a 27-under 257 total.
Yet, he still ended up three shots behind Englishman Jordan Smith, who fired a 63 to complete a wire-to-wire victory with a sensational 30-under.
Gavin was not disheartened despite being made to wait longer for his elusive breakthrough win on the European Tour.
It was the second time this year that Gavin finished second after the Czech Masters in August.
"Played my heart out there and unfortunately it wasn't enough. Enjoyed every minute of it!" wrote Gavin on his Facebook account.
Besides laughing all the way to the bank with a cool €220,526 (RM1.03mil), his solid effort also moved him up to 42nd on the season-long points standings, boosting his hopes of making the top-50 cut for the lucrative US$9mil (RM42.57mil) season-ending Tour Championship from Nov 17-20.
Gavin also earned a start in this week's Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa, which offers a prize purse of US$6mil (RM28.38mil).
Smith, who picked up his second European Tour win, savoured his two-horse race with Gavin and admitted that the latter's hot pursuit was a key factor that steered him to glory.
"I knew there would be a lot of good scores out there, with guys trying to catch me. Gavin was trying to get there and he was getting closer and closer, but I managed to hold him off.
"It was a little bit (like match play). When we got down the last five or six holes, it got to that sort of stage. I knew he was four shots ahead of the guy in third, so it was just between us two."