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Anahita - Justin Harding was in the thick of things leading up to the final day of the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open at the Four Seasons Golf Course on Sunday.
The South African, who is having a breakthrough season, was tied for the lead with America's Kurt Kitayama at 16-under.
Harding shot 8-under in the third round and the odds were on him to potentially lift his fifth title of the year.
However, it was not to be.
Harding could not match Saturday's form on the final day as he made four birdies, three bogeys with various crucial par-saving moments on the back nine.
He eventually carded a 1-under 71 to finish at 17-under for the tournament.
"The final round was rather annoying, to be fair. I started out really solidly. The key for me throughout the year was to keep the momentum going throughout the rounds," Harding said after his round.
"I made an aggressive play on sixth and I thought that I have enough club to get it over the trap but the wind knocked it down. On Friday or Saturday, the ball would have got it passed the flag. That bogey just knocked me on my bum and I bogeyed the next.
"I gave myself chances on the 10th, 11th and 12th but I felt that I never hit it on the right side of the hole. It was just one of those days. I made some bad swings on the 14th and 15th and I was lucky to make some serious pars."
Harding played alongside Kitayama, who went on to win by two strokes and claim his first European Tour victory.
"Kurt played great. He started well on the front nine and held it together. We had a nice time out there. Not the result I'm looking for, but it's not bad. I would have taken it at the start of the week."
Harding's fourth-place finish in Mauritius saw him pocket a cool R770 693.02.
Sport24 is at the AfrAsia Mauritius Open sponsored by the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority and SUN Resorts.
Scores:
268 - Kurt Kitayama 65 65 70 68
270 - Chikkarangappa S 64 68 71 67, Matthieu Pavon 67 66 70 67
271 - Justin Harding 67 69 64 71
272 - Dylan Frittelli 69 70 68 65, Masahiro Kawamura 65 71 67 69
274 - Antoine Rozner 70 68 70 66, Oliver Bekker 67 69 70 68, Max Schmitt 71 66 69 68, Grant Forrest 70 71 65 68
275 - Lee Slattery 67 69 71 68, Clement Sordet 71 67 68 69, Gavin Moynihan 69 65 71 70
276 - Victor Perez 64 69 71 72
277 - Fabrizio Zanotti 71 68 73 65, Christiaan Bezuidenhout 70 68 71 68
278 - Trevor Fisher Jnr 69 66 73 70, Jbe' Kruger 70 67 71 70, Raphael Jacquelin 70 67 71 70
279 - Siddikur Rahman 70 70 73 66, Yikeun Chang 71 68 70 70, Adilson Da Silva 73 67 68 71
280 - Jaco Van Zyl 65 75 74 66, Pedro Figueiredo 71 68 73 68, Keith Horne 68 71 71 70, Thomas Aiken 70 71 68 71, Romain Langasque 70 72 65 73
281 - George Coetzee 69 72 71 69, Christofer Blomstrand 70 68 73 70, Jeunghun Wang 76 65 70 70, Jean Hugo 71 67 72 71, Berry Henson 69 71 70 71, Yanwei Liu 71 67 71 72, Alex Haindl 67 72 70 72, Ajeetesh Sandhu 69 70 68 74
282 - Malcolm Kokocinski 67 71 74 70, Joachim B. Hansen 71 70 71 70, Jack Harrison 71 70 68 73
283 - Hyowon Park 68 73 74 68, Gregory Havret 72 68 73 70, Tyrone Ryan 69 72 71 71, Jordan Smith 68 72 71 72, Matthias Schwab 67 71 72 73
284 - Stuart Manley 71 70 74 69, Dawie Van der Walt 72 69 74 69, Gonzalo Fdez-Castano 72 69 70 73
285 - Estiaan Conradie 70 70 75 70, Philip Eriksson 68 72 74 71, Haydn Porteous 76 66 72 71, Lionel Weber 69 69 74 73, Jaco Ahlers 70 70 72 73, Kim Koivu 70 71 71 73, Rourke van der Spuy 68 72 71 74, Ernie Els 69 70 71 75
286 - Hennie Otto 74 68 75 69, Viraj Madappa 68 74 75 69, Paul Peterson 68 72 75 71, Joel Girrbach 70 72 72 72, Adri Arnaus 72 66 75 73, Nicolas Colsaerts 72 69 72 73
287 - Udayan Mane 70 72 73 72
290 - Julien Brun 70 72 76 72
291 - Merrick Bremner 68 68 82 73
292 - Bowen Xiao 73 67 77 75
293 - David Drysdale 69 70 79 75
. @JustinHarding60 finished fourth at the @AfrAsiaMRUOpen. He gears up now for the @SAOpen_Golf next week at Randpark Golf Club. pic.twitter.com/K2TCZ81Ub6
— Sport24News (@Sport24news) December 2, 2018
