Scott Hend has suffered a second heartbreaking close call on the European Tour in as many weeks, the Queenslander losing his 54-hole lead at the KLM Open to fan favourite Joost Luiten.

Hend played brilliant golf over the first three days to grab a one shot lead heading to the final round at The Dutch golf course in the Netherlands but couldn’t overcome two Sunday double bogeys and a charging Luiten.

Playing in the group ahead of Hend, the Dutchman, spurred on by a home crowd, began applying the pressure early with birdies at his first two holes.

Hend, meanwhile, was steady with three straight pars before his first mistake of the day came at the fourth.

However, the Australian looked back on track when he made his second eagle of the week two holes later and followed with a birdie at the seventh.

But disaster struck at the 9th, Hend found water and racked up a momentum killing double bogey.

With Luiten going to the turn in 5-under and making birdies at both 10 and 11, Hend was unable to recover his rhythm and fell out of contention making five straight pars before carding another double at the 15^th.

A bogey-birdie finish saw him sign for a disappointing 2-over 73 to drop to T4, four behind Luiten.

Hend and fellow Olympian Marcus Fraser were the only two of the eight Australians in the field to make the cut.

Fraser struggled with his game all week and battled to a T66 finish while Terry Pilkadaris, Brett Rumford, Jason Scrivener, Richard Green, Andrew Dodt and Nathan Holman all missed the weekend’s action.