It was a case of what might have been – or maybe even what should have been – for Matt Wallace after he missed out on the Italian Open title by two shots.

The Moor Park Golf Club professional had held a two-shot lead at the end of the third round, but he was unable to capitalise on several birdie opportunities, unlike Tyrrell Hatton who picked up five shots in the closing seven holes to make it back-to-back European Tour triumphs following last week’s successful defence of his Alfred Dunhill Links Championship crown.

Although the 27-year-old was unable to seal a wire-to-wire triumph in one of the European Tour’s premier Rolex Series events, a fourth-place finish sent him soaring up the Race to Dubai rankings.

Wallace rose from 130th to 62nd place, leaving him a tantalising 9,261 points outside the top-60 placing he needs to secure a place at the season-ending World Tour Championship in Dubai going into this week's Andalucia Valderrama Masters. 

The Pinner-based professional was also responsible for what the European Tour deemed to be their Moment of the Day, an astonishing chip and run shot on 17 that went racing into the hole to, at that stage, give him renewed hope of being involved in a play-off.

“I’m pretty happy with how I managed myself out there, I just lost in that middle section,” Wallace told the European Tour website afterwards. "I hit a really good shot into 13 that was long, but I didn’t really give myself that many good chances on the back nine.

“I played the 14th pretty bad, that was the killer, tried to get it back and then obviously the madness happened on 17 and I had to calm myself down. I gave myself a chance in that bunker on the last, but just fluffed it out and dug deep at the end to hole that putt.”

This year’s Open de Portugal champion had opened his round by continuing his 100 per cent tournament record of making at least a birdie on every par five with a four at the first.

Wallace continued to play impressively from tee to green on the front nine, but he was unable to capitalise on another birdie opportunity until the next par five at nine.

He said: “Come the third or fourth hole I saw the leaderboard and that people had tied with me so I knew from then on I needed to go for as many birdies as possible and I played great, I played really nicely and just didn’t hole the putts.

“It’s kind of let me down this week. If I’d have putted half decent I’d have probably run away with this week, which is a shame because it’s normally the best part of my game. We’ll learn from this and we’ll go again.”

Wallace’s perfect par five record had come to an end at the 14th where he was unable to recover after a bad tee shot and made a bogey six.

The ‘madness on 17’ put him back within a shot of the lead at that time, with Hatton tied on 20-under alongside clubhouse leaders Ross Fisher and Kiradech Aphibarnrat.

But even if last year’s six-time Alps Tour winner had chipped in from a bunker on 18, his hopes of a play-off would have been thwarted as Hatton rolled in his 15-foot birdie putt to take the title.