Greg Owen suffered a simply crushing defeat after being poised to win his first US Tour title.

A week after Luke Donald captured the Honda Classic, the Mansfield golfer had a three-foot par putt on the penultimate hole of the Bay Hill Invitational in Orlando to take a two-stroke lead.

But not only did Owen miss that one, he failed to make the two-footer coming back - and then lipped out with his 13-foot par putt on the last to lose by one to Australian Rod Pampling.

Darren Clarke, who equalled his lowest round in America with a Saturday 63, finished third, Lee Westwood fifth and Justin Rose eighth, but in the cruellest possible way there has still never been a European winner of the title.

It would have been a victory to change Owen's career. Apart from the huge amount of money he missed out on, the difference between first and second being £225,000, he would have leapt from 95th in the world to the mid-thirties and been sure of a Masters debut in two weeks' time.

He would have earned a two-year US Tour exemption and he would also, now that he is back as a European tour member, leapt into the top 10 in the race for places in Europe's Ryder Cup team.

But Owen's lack of concentration on the 17th - he failed to line up his second putt in his usual way - cost him dear when he followed it by pulling his approach to the last into sand and, by the narrowest of margins, failed to get up and down.

Pampling, who had been two clear of Owen and Clarke with a round to play, won with a closing 72 and 14 under par total.

Owen turned in 33, added another birdie on the 10th despite driving into sand and drew level after the Queenslander drove out of bounds on the 13th and double-bogeyed.

The former British Masters champion, who overcame back surgery to win a US Tour card at the end of 2004, then went ahead by holing a 30-footer from the fringe of the 14th green.

Pampling came back with a birdie on the next, only for Owen to nose in front again when he got up and down from sand at the long 16th.

But it all turned horribly sour for the 34-year-old right at the end and his best-ever finish on the circuit will not be a happy memory.

Owen had been a majestic six under for the first 16 holes, but finished double bogey, bogey for a 69.

Clarke's 70 meant he finished one ahead of Robert Allenby, while Westwood had a spectacular six birdies in nine holes starting at the ninth, but bogeyed the last like his Nottinghamshire colleague.

Owen can still make the Masters, but will have to shake off his disappointment to move into the world's top 50 after this week's Players Championship. That won't be easy.

Tiger Woods, never a factor all week, finished 20th despite not breaking 70 in any round, while Nick Faldo, 61st after 54 holes, withdrew before teeing off again. Faldo pulled out of last week's event because of his father's ill-health.

Collated final-round scores and totals (USA unless stated, par 72):

274 Rodney Pampling (Aus) 70 65 67 72

275 Greg Owen (Eng) 70 69 67 69

276 Darren Clarke (NIrl) 73 70 63 70

277 Robert Allenby (Aus) 68 67 73 69

278 Ted Purdy 69 71 71 67, Lee Westwood (Eng) 68 71 72 67

279 Vijay Singh (Fij) 71 71 68 69

280 Justin Rose (Eng) 70 70 71 69, Tom Pernice Jnr. 68 73 68 71

281 Scott Verplank 72 69 70 70, Joey Sindelar 70 73 69 69, Dean Wilson 66 70 73 72, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 68 69 71 73, Fred Funk 69 75 68 69

282 Angel Cabrera (Arg) 70 70 69 73, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 74 69 68 71

283 Lucas Glover 67 67 72 77, Chad Campbell 67 71 73 72, Mike Weir (Can) 69 71 71 72

284 Corey Pavin 69 69 71 75, Jim Furyk 72 69 70 73, Tiger Woods 70 71 71 72, Charles Warren 71 72 71 70, Ben Curtis 67 73 68 76, Bart Bryant 66 71 73 74

285 Brandt Jobe 72 70 72 71, Jason Bohn 71 68 68 78, Kirk Triplett 73 70 68 74, Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa) 74 70 70 71, Brian Gay 70 71 73 71, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 70 68 70 77, Bo Van Pelt 72 68 71 74, Jason Gore 67 73 73 72

286 Carlos Franco (Par) 68 74 74 70, Mark Wilson 69 70 72 75, KJ Choi (Kor) 71 73 72 70, John Huston 70 72 73 71, Bubba Watson 69 75 72 70, Pat Perez 73 72 71 70, Joe Ogilvie 71 72 73 70, Henrik Bjornstad (Nor) 71 73 70 72, Harrison Frazar 72 66 74 74

287 Woody Austin 70 74 73 70, Bernhard Langer (Ger) 70 71 73 73, Billy Hurley III 73 70 73 71, Zach Johnson 72 72 73 70, Bubba Dickerson 69 74 68 76

288 J.B. Holmes 73 72 73 70, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 69 73 70 76, Nick Watney 75 70 74 69, Steve Jones 71 73 68 76, Charles Howell III 72 72 73 71, J J Henry 73 71 72 72

289 Stuart Appleby (Aus) 71 68 72 78, Ernie Els (Rsa) 67 73 74 75, Tom Lehman 70 72 75 72, Dan Forsman 71 73 67 78, Jeff Maggert 73 70 71 75

290 Camilo Villegas (Col) 71 69 73 77, Hunter Mahan 72 72 71 75, Daniel Chopra (Swe) 71 72 69 78

291 Heath Slocum 72 73 70 76, Patrick Damron 75 70 76 70, Shane Bertsch 72 72 70 77, Jeff Sluman 75 68 77 71, Todd Hamilton 72 73 74 72

292 Kevin Stadler 70 72 70 80

293 David Branshaw 70 72 73 78, Duffy Waldorf 75 69 77 72

295 Nathan Green (Aus) 74 71 73 77

298 Mark Hensby (Aus) 73 70 73 82

300 Tim Petrovic 73 72 73 82