Oosthuizen roars from five shots back to win Volvo Golf Champions by one

DURBAN, South Africa -- Scott Jamieson won’t forget Durban in a hurry -- but not for all the right reasons now.

The 29-year-old from Glasgow just missed out on earning his second win in the South African city in two starts on Sunday when South African star Louis Oosthuizen came from five shots back to win the Volvo Golf Champions.

Oosthuizen, the 2010 British Open champion, recorded a joint best-of-the-day 66 at Durban Country Club to win by a shot over Jamieson. The victory is Oosthuizen’s sixth European Tour title and elevates him to a career-high fourth in the world.

Jamieson, who was looking to add the trophy to his Nelson Mandela Championship win at Royal Durban last month, almost forced a playoff, but his chip for eagle on the 273-yard last stopped two inches from the hole. Instead, he became the first player since Hennie Otto five years ago to lose a European Tour event from five clear with a round to go.

Jamieson still held that advantage after picking up shots at the third and fourth holes, but he but double-bogeyed the sixth after driving into the bushes and didn’t have another birdie until the 18th.

"Louis's a major champion -- there's no shame in losing to him," said Jamieson, the world No. 100. "I gave it my all, but it wasn't to be."

He can content himself with the fact that he has started the 2013 European Tour season first, third and second.

"I'll take that -- absolutely," he added. "The double bogey was a kick in the [gut], to put it politely, but I had tons of chances and couldn't take them."

Jamieson will move up to around 70th in the new rankings on Monday – a personal best for him too – and if he can make it into the top 50 by the end of March, there will be the reward of a Masters debut. That has been his dream ever since he was a student at Augusta State University and was allowed to play the world-famous course once a year.

Oosthuizen lost a playoff to Bubba Watson there last April, of course, and in his last eight starts has had seven top-10 finishes to push Justin Rose down to fifth in the world.

"It was a great week – a lot of things happened," said the 30-year-old Oosthuizen, who on Friday won a $50,000 excavator for his farm when he was part of the winning team in the day's pro-am format.

He followed his Friday 64 with a 74, but was back to his best on Sunday with six birdies in the first 11 holes. Another came when he two-putted from just over the green of the long 14th, but from two in front he missed a three-foot par putt on the 16th.

When Jamieson came to the hole, however, he pushed his approach into a plugged lie in the bunker and took bogey as well.

The closing birdie for a 15-under-par total of 273 moved Jamieson out of a tie for second with Thailand's Thongchai Jaidee, while Ireland's Padraig Harrington shot 68 to climb to fourth in the 33-man winners-only field.

He and most of the others now move on to Abu Dhabi, where world top two Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods play for the first time in 2013.