Darren Clarke reflected on one bad mental error as he lost to Australian Peter Lonard from three up in their Accenture world match play championship quarter-final in California today.
Clarke was three holes to the good standing on the ninth fairway and when Lonard went into a bunker he allowed himself to think about the possibility of going four-up.
"I got ahead of myself," said the Ulsterman, who then pushed his approach, lost the hole to a par four and was powerless to prevent Lonard making a comeback which resulted in a final-green victory.
"It's obviously disappointing, especially from the position I was in," added Clarke, winner here in 2000.
"Once Peter won that ninth and then birdied the 10th he had the momentum and, as I said earlier in the week, momentum is huge in matchplay."
Clarke double-bogeyed the 14th after hooking his drive into a ditch, failed to get up and down from short of the green on the 16th, missed a 10-foot birdie chance at the next and failed with a 25-footer to stay alive on the par five last after pulling his drive into the rough.
Lonard will play former US PGA champion David Toms in the semi-final after the latter beat Jerry Kelly 4&3.
Tiger Woods took another step towards completing his full set of world golf titles by crushing Ryder Cup team-mate Scott Hoch 5&4 and will play Adam Scott, who beat Jay Haas 2&1, in the other semi-final.
PA