It started so well for Erik van Rooyen on Sunday, but he seemed to lose touch with his precision on the homeward nine as he carded a one-under-par 70 to finish in a share of 10^th in the PGA Tour’s RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Links in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

With four successive birdies from the second hole onwards, Van Rooyen had grabbed control if his own destiny in the tournament, leading at 14-under. With rounds as low as 63 and 64 out there, a second PGA Tour victory looked very much on the cards.

The bogey on the seventh was the first sign that things might not work out for him, however. With the flag tucked threateningly close to the water on the left, he stuffed his tee-shot right. So far right, in fact, that he had a tough long bunker shot that he was unable to get any closer than 13 feet past the flag. The following two-putt bogey sent up the first warning lights.

So good had his play during the week been, however, that he managed to regain that stroke and retake the lead with a birdie on the short par-four ninth, where he chipped to inside eight feet off a 318-yard tee-shot.

But the back nine had been playing tougher than the front all week, and it was there that his challenge for the title unravelled. Four bogeys – on the 10^th, 13^th, 15^th and 16^th – all contributed to him losing touch with the top of the leaderboard. In each case, it was the result of slightly wayward tee-shots or approach-shots leaving him with too much to do to save par.

It was only on the 18^th that he looked assured again, putting his tee shot in position on the left side of the wide landing area of the final fairway, and floating his approach under 20 feet past the pin, and making the putt.

By then, the chance was gone, and Jordan Spieth and Patrick Cantlay – Van Rooyen’s playing partner – had carded 13-under to contest a play-off. Spieth won it on the first extra hole. In a share of third were Cam Davis of Australia, Americans JT Poston, Cameron Young, Matt Kuchar and Harold Varner III, Sepp Straka of Austria and former Open champion Shane Lowry of Ireland.

Branden Grace had a solid finish, his two-under 69 lifting him into a share of 35^th. Charl Schwartzel carded a level-par 71 for a share of 54^th on two-under for the tournament, while Dylan Frittelli had a brush with a slightly obscure rule when he stood astride the line of his shot as he whacked his ball out of a tree on the sixth hole. That two-stroke penalty saw him slip to a five-over 76 as he finished on one-over for the tournament in 66^th.