Wild card Donald's near-miss sharpens his game

The last leg of the FedEx Cup play-off series saw Furyk lift the Tour Championship in Atlanta by a single shot from the English star.

Both of them had to win the tournament to add the mind-blowing 6.3m cup bonus and the four-week play-offs were heading for a sudden death play-off until Furyk got up and down from a bunker on the final hole.

Donald, who had dramatically chipped in from over 90 feet on the 17th, still earned over 1.2m for finishing third in the overall series.

"Obviously there's a little bit of disappointment," said the 32-year-old, who after a second runner-up finish in three events is still chasing his first victory in the States for more than four-and-a-half years.

"I had a good chance and I'm proud of myself for hanging in, but unfortunately I came up one short.

"I will try and crack that winner's circle soon, but, hopefully, I can take some of this good golf to the Ryder Cup.

"I'm looking forward to it. There's nothing quite like the atmosphere of it and it's been four years for me."

Donald missed the last match after wrist surgery, but was given a wild card this time by Colin Montgomerie.

Paul Casey, the world No 7 controversially left out by Europe's captain, still had a chance to deliver the perfect reply with one hole to play at East Lake.

Second place on his own in the tournament would have made Casey the overall FedEx champion, but he had to settle for fourth place.

"I played very good golf, I gave it 100 per cent and there's nothing else I can do," he commented before leaving for a mountain bike trip to the Canadian Rockies.

Furyk's win was remarkable not for how he played – eight under par was good enough and he bogeyed two of the last three holes – but for what happened a month ago.

He was disqualified from the opening play-off event for oversleeping and missing his pro-am tee-off time.

But he came back from that, climbed to 11th in the standings with a week to go and took advantage of all the players above him not doing what they had to do in the 30-man finale in Atlanta.