Charl Schwartzel carded a brilliant five-under-par 67 in the final round of the PGA Tour’s AT&T Byron Nelson to finish solo eighth on 22-under-par in Texas, USA, on Sunday.

The event was won by South Korean K.H Lee on a total of 26-under-par and four shots clear of the South African but Schwartzel would have been proud of his performance despite not winning the tournament.

He was trailing the then-leading Sebastien Munoz by four when he stepped onto the first tee on Sunday. He was sixth on the leaderboard and he knew a four-stroke lead can be overturned. He was in great form and the preceding rounds of 66, 65 and 68 painted a picture of a player whose intent is to win the tournament.

Every decision he would make would have to be calculated so that few or no mistakes would be made. Four straight pars to begin his final round and the 2011 Masters champion gained some confidence. He birdied the next hole, made par on six and then birdied the par-three seventh. Another par on eight kept his card clean before Schwartzel birdied the ninth to turn in 33 and bogey-free.

Schwartzel found another birdie on 10 to make it two on the trot, and as he had done for most of the day, picked up a par – this time on the 11^th – where he could not make gains. He was rewarded for his patience as he made a birdie on 12. Three more pars followed back-to-back until an unwanted bogey on 16 tried to spoil – with little success – what was surely a brilliant round of golf by the experienced South African.

He closed with a birdie to cement a spot in the top 10 as the leading South African on the PGA Tour this week. Christiaan Bezuidenhout was the next best performer and his T12 finish was just as superb. The South African star’s 20-under total – which was all thanks to rounds of 67, 70, 64 and 67 catapulted him to a three-way share of the 12^th spot with Matt Kutchar and Alex Noren.

At 15-under-par for the week, Branden Grace was the third-best South African player in Texas as he finished in a share of 38^th. Dylan Frittelli tied 69^th on 10-under-par while Dawie van der Walt finished in a share of 81^st after a tournament total of six-under-par.