It took two spectacular finishes to deny Australians Stephanie Kyriacou and Adam Scott victories in two of golf’s most coveted championships.

A one-stroke leader entering the final round of The Amundi Evian Championship in France, Kyriacou hung tough in a see-sawing tussle with American Lauren Coughlin.

A birdie at the par-5 15th followed by a brilliant tee shot at the par-3 16th saw the 23-year-old regain the outright lead, but only briefly.

After missing the fairway left at the par-4 17th, Kyriacou came up short of the green with her shot out of the rough and subsequently chunked her chip shot on the way to her only bogey of the day.

As Coughlin dropped away, Kyriacou was joined at the top of the leaderboard by Japan’s Ayaka Furue, the pair locked together at 17-under with Thailand’s Patty Tavatanakit (63) as they played the final hole.

Another missed fairway forced Kyriacou to lay up at the par-5 finisher.

Despite getting up-and-down from 125 yards for birdie and round of 4-under 67, Kyriacou could only watch on as Furue hit a brilliant second and holed the putt for eagle to play her final five holes in 5-under and claim a maiden major victory by one shot.

“It’s mixed emotions,” said Kyriacou after her round.

“Obviously I wanted to win but I played how I wanted to and I did my best and Ayaka just came in clutch at the end.

“It was a good week. Sucks not to hold the trophy but if you told me I would come second at the start of the week I would’ve been happy.”

It took an equally extraordinary conclusion to deny Scott at the Genesis Scottish Open.

Home country favourite Robert MacIntyre also finished in a flurry to go one better than his second-place finish to Rory McIlroy 12 months earlier at The Renaissance Club.

A birdie on 14 elevated the hopes of the enormous galleries but it was his second shot out of the rough to six feet at the par-5 16th that turned the tournament on its head.

He converted that opportunity for eagle and then holed a birdie putt from 22 feet at the 72nd hole to deny Scott what would have been his first win in more than four years.

A double-bogey at eight stunted Scott’s Sunday charge, but only momentarily.

He responded with consecutive birdies at nine and 10 and then took the outright lead when he hit his tee shot to just two feet at the par-3 14th.

A dropped shot at the next – a hole he had birdied each of the first three days – would prove costly.

The 43-year-old got that shot back with birdie on 16 but couldn’t find the extra shot he needed over the closing two holes to match MacIntyre’s 18-under total.

“I knew I had to at least birdie 16, and then I was trying to find one there at the last,” said Scott, who qualified for this week’s Open Championship by virtue of his finish at the 2023 ISPS HANDA Australian Open.

“I had quite a tricky putt to read. It was kind of down the spine, and I read it to go straight. I was like straight down the spine but it went right a little bit.

“It was fun to have one that mattered, actually. I’m excited to take some comfort inside of this and heading into a major next week on form.

“It’s been a while since I can say I’ve done that.”

The Open champion at St Andrews two years ago, Cameron Smith (68) earned a confidence-boosting tie for sixth at LIV Golf Andalucia while Michael Wright was the leading Australian at the Kaulig Companies Championship, banking $US106,750 for his tie for seventh.

Results

DP World Tour/PGA TOUR Genesis Scottish Open The Renaissance Club, North Berwick, Scotland 1 Robert MacIntyre 67-65-63-67—262 €1,448,974.80 2 Adam Scott 67-65-64-67—263 €906,644.23 T26 Cam Davis 68-66-66-70—270 €67,480.83 T46 Daniel Hillier (NZ) 66-71-66-70—273 €28,859.06 T57 Ryan Fox (NZ) 67-67-70-70—274 €23,100.80 T73 Min Woo Lee 67-70-70-75—282 €17,056.50 MC Jason Scrivener 68-73—141

LPGA Tour The Amundi Evian Championship Evian Resort Golf Club, Evian-les-Bains, France 1 Ayaka Furue 65-65-70-65—265 $US1.2m 2 Stephanie Kyriacou 66-66-67-67—266 $731,723 T39 Lydia Ko (NZ) 65-73-72-71—281 $40,061 T44 Hannah Green 73-69-70-70—282 $32,849 T49 Minjee Lee 70-69-68-76—283 $28,642 T51 Grace Kim 70-70-74-70—284 $26,440 T55 Gabriela Ruffels 69-72-76-70—287 $23,234 MC Sarah Kemp 75-71—146 MC Hira Naveed 75-73—148

PGA TOUR ISCO Championship Keene Trace Golf Club (Champions Cse), Nicholasville, Kentucky T59 Aaron Baddeley 69-67-70-74—280 MC David Micheluzzi 70-67—137 MC Haydn Barron 70-71—141 MC Sam Jones (NZ) 74-72—146 WD Harrison Endycott 75

PGA TOUR Champions Kaulig Companies Championship Firestone CC, Akron, Ohio 1 Ernie Els 70-68-64-68—270 $US525,000 T7 Steven Alker (NZ) 68-65-74-70—277 $106,750 T7 Michael Wright 70-71-63-73—277 $106,750 T11 Cameron Percy 69-70-69-70—278 $77,000 T14 Mark Hensby 69-71-68-71—279 $64,750 T17 Richard Green 67-73-72-69—281 $51,013 T17 Stuart Appleby 72-71-66-72—281 $51,013 T33 Steve Allan 72-71-72-69—284 $21,150 T44 Greg Chalmers 73-75-70-68—286 $13,650 T56 John Senden 75-69-71-74—289 $7,175 T67 Rod Pampling 72-74-77-72—295 $3,547

LIV Golf LIV Golf Andalucia Real Club Valderrama, Sotogrande, Spain 1 Sergio Garcia 69-73-66—208 $US4m Won in sudden-death playoff T6 Cameron Smith 72-71-68—211 $608,334 T6 Danny Lee (NZ) 67-72-72—211 $608,334 T10 Marc Leishman 76-66-71—213 $392,250 T35 Lucas Herbert 75-75-70—220 $145,334 T45 Matt Jones 81-71-73—225 $125,000

Japan Golf Tour Shigeo Nagashima Sega Sammy Cup The North Country Golf Club, Hokkaido 1 Noriaki Hirata 66-68-65-68—267 ¥20m T47 Brad Kennedy 72-69-73-68—282 ¥320,000 T54 Michael Hendry (NZ) 69-73-72-70—284 ¥242,166 MC Anthony Quayle 70-76—146Korn Ferry Tour The Ascendant presented by Blue TPC Colorado, Berthoud, Colorado 1 Cristobal Del Solar 66-68-66-66—266 T13 Karl Vilips 67-69-70-68—274 MC Rhein Gibson 72-70—142 MC Curtis Luck 75-68—143 MC Brett Drewitt 77-71—148

Epson Tour Hartford HealthCare Women’s Championship Great River Golf Club, Milford, Connecticut 1 Daniela Iacobelli 66-67-67—200 T19 Cassie Porter 71-69-72—212 T43 Maddison Hinson-Tolchard 76-69-70—215 T69 Fiona Xu (NZ) 74-70-75—219 MC Amelia Garvey (NZ) 75-74—149 MC Su Oh 78-74—152

Korean PGA Tour Gunsan CC Open Gunsan CC, Korea 1 Jang Yu-bin 66-64-71-71—272 T19 Sungjin Yeo 66-70-74-71—281 T60 Junseok Lee 71-70-74-75—290 MC Kevin Chun (NZ) 69-74—143 MC Changgi Lee 75-70—145

PGA TOUR Americas Explore NB Open Mactaquac Golf Course, Mactaquac, New Brunswick Event reduced to 54 holes 1 Ian Holt 63-62-62—187 T6 Grant Booth 66-65-66—197 T44 Harry Hillier (NZ) 67-67-67—201

Legends Tour Swiss Seniors Open Golf Club Bad Ragaz, Switzerland 1 Jarmo Sandelin 69-64-67—200 T15 Jason Norris 69-68-70—207 T20 Michael Long (NZ) 68-70-70—208 T29 Michael Campbell (NZ) 68-71-70—209 T52 Peter Fowler 69-71-77—217 T54 Peter O’Malley 74-72-72—218