Justin Rose felt two mistakes just before the turn cost him the chance to put the pressure on new Masters champion Jordan Spieth.
Rose finished in a tie for second with Phil Mickelson at Augusta, closing his tournament on 14 under with a final round 70.
But it could have been so much better for the Englishman, who was looking for a second major after winning the 2013 US Open, as he had just closed the gap on Spieth to three strokes when the final pair reached the eighth tee.
Rose failed to make the most of the par-five hole, with Spieth making a regulation birdie, and worse would follow at the ninth when he dropped a shot to fall five back - a deficit from which he could never recover.
"It was a great start for Jordan and myself with two birdies in the first three holes but the key moment for me was not getting up and down from right of the eighth and three-putting the ninth," Rose said.
Rose has led after the first round at Augusta three times and also finished fifth in 2007, and asked what he needed to do to win, added: "Just shoot 14 under again. Normally that gets it done.
"Only thing I had not done was put four good rounds together and I did that so let's continue that trend."
Spieth had finished first, second and second in his previous three events and Rose said of his final round partner: "Phenomenal, what a month of golf he's had. Awesome composure.
"Every time I thought there was a chink in the armour he would come out and hole an eight foot putt."
Mickelson completed a second place slam and has now set his sights on a career grand slam, which he could win at the US Open in June, a tournament being played at Chambers Bay.
"I feel like this is the way I've been playing but not scoring like this. This is the first week that I've got the score out of myself that I thought I should," Mickelson said.
"I plan on taking the next couple of weeks to work on my game and get it sharp and hopefully use this as a springboard for the rest of the year because I feel like my game has really come around. This week, I played some good golf and hopefully I'll continue the rest of the year.
"My tactic the last two weeks heading into here was try to make a lot of birdies because I knew that I had to come out here and make a lot of birdies, fire at pins, get good distance control, short game is sharp and make putts.
"But heading into the US Open, I'll have a different tactic. I'll try to play more of a controlled style game, getting the ball in play, getting short game sharp, that's always important, trying to play more of a strategic style."