Kade McBride has suffered an horrific final round at the Play Today NSW Open, surrendering a five-stroke lead at the start of play to eventual champion David Micheluzzi.
McBride played consistent golf to start his round, making the turn at even par after a bogey on the fifth and a birdie on the eighth.
Rather than losing it by playing poorly, McBride had it stolen from him, as Micheluzzi made a run with birdies on the ninth, 10th and 11th holes to close within one of the leader.
McBride fought back, making a birdie of his own on 11 to extend his lead back to two strokes, but it wasn’t enough, as the relentless Micheluzzi levelled the score at 20-under when he made a birdie on both the 15th and 17th holes.
It all came down to the final hole, and Micheluzzi sent his birdie putt past the hole, but saved a par as McBride teed off in the final group behind.
It was a game of inches as McBride’s chip on to the green hit the lip of the greenside bunker and trickled in. He caught the resulting shot thin, sending it just off the green, and was unable to recover a par to send it to a playoff, handing Micheluzzi the win.
"It was actually a really good shot, I'd just slightly mis-hit it and I caught it a little low, so just put a few extra revs on it and just spun into the wind a bit,” McBride said.
“Like I said, we're out there trying to play to win and I certainly wasn't going to hit a wedge into the middle of the green.
“I mean hitting a wedge up there to try and actually make the birdie and win outright was kind of how I was planning on doing it. I got a little unlucky off the tee shot as well, but it's all right either way."
Although he didn’t manage to take the win, McBride was content with the aggressive fashion in which he played the final hole.
"I hit a good drive, hit it on to make three which was the plan, but hit a really good drive, bad bounce.
“It's pretty dead behind those trees. I hooked a wedge out to a good number and just slightly mis-hit it trying to play for birdie, and then obviously ended up with a seven.
“I mean, you'd rather fail doing it that way than stuff it up being super conservative hitting it to the middle of the green.”
Still gracious in defeat and showing a lot of poise under the circumstances, McBride expressed disappointment there were no leaderboards on the course, confessing he was unaware of the scores.
“I actually didn't know the score, which was pretty disappointing, because there was no leaderboards out there. I actually figured that I needed a birdie to either get into a playoff or win,” he said.
“I had no idea what the scores were.
"There was no leaderboards, which is pretty disappointing."
McBride took solace in the fact that he didn’t actually play a bad round, being one-under par before he shot a double bogey on the 18th, and it took something special from Micheluzzi to wrest what would have been his first ever tour win from him.