Shane Lowry insisted his Open experience was a positive one despite seeing the chance to win a second major slip through his fingers.
However, the 37-year-old said not recovering from being three clear after four holes of his third round "is going to hurt for a few days".
After a disappointing six-over-par 77 in terrible conditions on Saturday Lowry found himself three off the lead heading into the final day at Royal Troon and despite four birdies in a front nine of 33 he could not maintain the momentum coming home.
The tough 11th hole, his nemesis all week, cost him a bogey and it was not until the par-three 17th he birdied again but it was too little, too late and he closed with a 68, finishing sixth on four under.
Xander Schauffele won his second major in three months.
"How could you not look back on it positively, a chance to win the Open?," he said.
"Obviously the critics will say that I probably should have won from where I was yesterday afternoon but it's not easy out there.
"There’s no two ways about it. I had a great chance of winning this Open and it’s going to hurt for a few days."
The 2019 Open champion had looked in total control over the first two days but after coming undone over the back nine on Saturday, shooting five bogeys to come home in 40, he needed some words of encouragement from his coach Neil Manchip.
"I wasn’t stupid enough to think I was out of the tournament, but I knew I had a chance to kind of grab the tournament by the scruff of the neck, and I didn’t do that," he added.
"I just wanted to go out and give myself a chance today. We had a great chat last night and I promised Neil I’d do one thing – go out and fight for every shot – and that’s what I did today.
"Unfortunately, it’s not good enough. You need to hole everything on a day like today, especially to beat someone like Xander, who’s in the form he’s in.
"He’s run away with it again. He did that on me at the US PGA and he’s done it again today.
"It’s not easy to win tournaments like this. I did everything I could. Unfortunately, I came up short."
Lowry's next opportunity to regain the Open will come next year at Portrush, the same venue as his iconic 2019 success.
"I thought I'm going to be going back to Portrush with the Claret Jug as well," he said.
"That could be pretty cool. I was very confident with how I was playing this week. I'm sure going back to Portrush will have its challenges next year for me with some demands and people are going to be talking about me a little bit more than they were in 2019. But, yeah, I'll go back, and I'll enjoy it.
"Who knows between now and then what's going to happen. We have a lot of good golf to play. Hopefully I'll be going back, you never know, as an Olympic medalist or a major champion or something. That would be pretty cool."
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