Luke Donald endured another disappointing close call when he finished runner-up to Scott Verplank at the £3.2million EDS Byron Nelson Championship.

Less than four months after finishing one shot behind at the Sony Open in Hawaii, Donald again was unable to close the deal, blowing a three-shot lead during the final round.

The pivotal moment was the par-four ninth, where he made double bogey to surrender the lead at the turn, and though he made it close at the end, he never led again at the Four Seasons TPC.

"I will look at the positive, but right now I'm disappointed," he said after shooting 68 to finish at 12-under-par 268, one stroke behind Verplank.

"I've had a couple of good chances this year (and) I came here to win today. It's not much fun finishing second.

"I got off to a great start, three birdies in six holes. I was feeling really good about my game and rolling the ball very well. Everything was good, and then I just got a little quick with my swing the next three holes and hit a few shots left."

Donald escaped with pars at seven and eight, but the ninth hole was a disaster. He pulled his drive into a bad lie, and hit his second shot left as well, from where he blasted his third to the edge of the green, before hitting a poor chip. Two putts later and the lead was gone.

"It was a pretty poor six, not many good shots in there," he said.

"That was the difference. I played quite well after that and finished with two birdies in the last six holes, but it wasn't quite good enough."

The 29-year-old Englishman, who played his college golf at Northwestern University in Illinois, still had a chance to force a play-off at the last, but he missed a 10-footer, no disgrace given the sub-standard state of the greens.

"I thought I hit a pretty good putt, but it just dived left at the hole and just missed," he lamented.

"It was one of the few putts that didn't roll very well for me. Whether it was the putt, or the green, I'm not sure."

Donald, who came into the event ranked 11th in the world, now has four runner-up finishes to go with his two victories on the PGA Tour.

It is perhaps too early in his career to suggest he is not a good closer, but he won't want too many more performances like this.

When you have a three-shot lead with 12 holes left, the tournament is yours to lose. And lose it he did, playing the final 12 holes in one-over.

Donald, who took a one-shot lead into the final round, carded 68 for second place on 12-under 268, with Phil Mickelson, Jerry Kelly, Ian Poulter and Rory Sabbatini two shots further back in a tie for third.

Poulter was the only player apart from fellow Englishman Donald to get to 11-under, but missed golden birdie chances at 15 and 16, before bogeying the 17th.

"Of course, I'm not happy," Poulter said. "Why should I be happy? I came out to win, not to finish third. I played pretty nicely today and I had a chance."

Collated final-round scores and totals (USA unless stated, par 70):

267 Scott Verplank 67 68 66 66

268 Luke Donald (Eng) 67 66 67 68

270 Phil Mickelson 69 70 66 65, Jerry Kelly 69 70 67 64, Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 70 69 67 64, Ian Poulter (Eng) 70 69 65 66

271 Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 67 67 71 66, Ken Duke 68 73 64 66

272 Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 70 68 67 67

273 Stephen Marino 69 67 70 67, Rodney Pampling (Aus) 68 70 69 66, Brett Wetterich 66 68 72 67

274 Vijay Singh (Fij) 69 67 69 69, Chad Campbell 73 65 69 67, J J Henry 72 69 67 66, John Merrick 68 69 70 67, Bo Van Pelt 68 72 68 66, Bob Tway 71 67 69 67

275 Michael Allen 69 69 64 73, John Rollins 70 71 66 68, Shaun Micheel 69 71 67 68, Mike Weir (Can) 70 68 69 68, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 73 68 67 67, Steve Allan (Aus) 69 68 71 67

276 Ben Crane 70 68 73 65, Sean O'Hair 65 69 74 68, Jonathan Byrd 69 69 68 70, Tommy Armour III 72 69 67 68

277 Kent Jones 69 66 71 71, Arron Oberholser 71 69 69 68, Kris Cox 70 71 69 67, Darron Stiles 70 70 70 67, Stephen Leaney (Aus) 70 68 70 69, Kevin Sutherland 75 65 69 68, Nathan Green (Aus) 67 70 73 67, Craig Bowden 70 70 70 67, Troy Matteson 69 72 71 65, Douglas Labelle 68 71 71 67

278 Daniel Chopra (Swe) 73 66 72 67, Robert Allenby (Aus) 68 70 69 71, John Senden (Aus) 67 69 71 71, Billy Mayfair 72 67 70 69, Matt Kuchar 72 68 69 69

279 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 70 70 68 71, Dudley Hart 71 70 70 68, Anders Hansen (Den) 66 73 69 71, Gavin Coles (Aus) 70 69 71 69, Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn) 71 66 70 72, Steve Elkington (Aus) 70 70 70 69, Jason Gore 71 66 73 69

280 Brendon De Jonge 70 69 69 72, Justin Leonard 71 70 71 68, Anthony Kim 70 66 77 67, Jeff Gove 70 68 71 71

281 Tim Petrovic 69 72 66 74, Mathias Gronberg (Swe) 71 70 69 71, Craig Kanada 69 70 73 69, Jason Schultz 71 70 67 73, D.J. Trahan 73 67 69 72

282 Brandt Snedeker 69 71 74 68, Rich Barcelo 73 67 72 70

283 Bernhard Langer (Ger) 70 69 72 72, Robert Garrigus 72 67 70 74, Joe Ogilvie 69 72 70 72, Cliff Kresge 68 71 70 74

284 Glen Day 69 67 71 77

286 Pat Perez 68 73 70 75, Colt Knost 74 64 74 74, J.L. Lewis 71 70 75 70

287 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 71 70 71 75

288 Charlie Wi (Kor) 69 68 79 72

290 Marco Dawson 70 69 77 74, Parker McLachlin 71 69 73 77