Robert Allenby woke up on feeling 'horrendous' but finished full of pride after losing in a playoff to Greg Chalmers on a thrilling final day of the Australian PGA Championship at Coolum.
The Victorian battled his swing, his mind and blustery conditions to card a four-under 68 and force a three-way playoff with Chalmers and Marcus Fraser.
A wayward tee shot at the first extra hole ultimately cost him his fifth PGA title, while a photographer's decision to move as Allenby was lining up his crucial par putt summed up the 40-year-old's day.
"I got put off by a camera guy at the back of the green that moved, they seemed like they were all set and then this one guy on the green thought he'd get a better look," a frustrated Allenby said.
"I had to back off and tell them to stand still and then I kind of lost a little bit of focus, I lost my line ... when I tune in I tune in and I couldn't find that spot again and I just hit a bad putt."
Despite dropping four shots on the back nine on Saturday, Allenby remained within striking distance heading into the final day.
He trailed KT Kim by five shots but admits he didn't feel good about his chances when he woke up feeling ordinary on Sunday morning.
"I woke up this morning as flat as I've ever been in my life ... but I just tried to overcome it and go through my morning routine," Allenby said.
"The first nine holes was very up and down, I hit a couple of loose shots and just wasn't really myself."
"But I said to myself 'you know what, I'm probably not going to need to do a lot to win this tournament'. I was thinking 13-under would be the perfect number and if I got to 13 I'd win outright, and as it was I would have."
"I'm happy with the result, of course I wanted to win, I wanted to win my fifth Australian PGA title, there's no question about it."
"But coming down the stretch I was pretty proud of the way I handled myself and I hung in there when I felt horrendous and my mind was playing a lot of tricks and a lot of games with me, but I overcame a lot of things coming down the stretch."
Allenby will now take a two-week layoff at his Florida base before returning for the Australian Masters at Victoria Golf Club on December 15-18.