Rhein Gibson has posted his second top-3 result in as many tournaments to start the 2018 Web.com Tour season but an incident on the 72^nd hole of this week’s event in the Bahamas has taken some of the shine off his excellent play.

Needing to eagle the par-5 last hole to win the Great Abaco Classic, or birdie to force a play-off, Gibson pulled his second shot with a fairway wood into a greenside hazard.

As he, his fellow players and caddies searched for the ball the TV coverage went to an ad break and upon returning commentators revealed that the ball had been found but Gibson’s caddie had picked it up before his player had a chance to inspect the lie.

The mistake incurred a penalty shot for moving a ball in play, and that error then compounded when Gibson incurred a further penalty when proceeding to drop outside the hazard to continue play.

He eventually carded a bogey six on the hole to drop from a share of second to outright third, two shots behind Canada’s Adam Svensson.

The incident will likely dominate talk andwhile disappointed with what happened, Gibson can take heart from some outstanding golf the past two weeks.

Both he and Brett Drewitt have made promising starts to the 2018 season, Drewitt next best of the eight Australasians this week in a share of 10^th place.

Those two are both inside the top-5 on the money list early in the season and are in good positions to each push for a top-25 finish, and a PGA TOUR card at the end of the year.

New Zealand’s Tim Wilkinson was T32 at 7-under for the week with Jamie Arnold three shots further back and T43.

Curtis Luck was T56, Steve Alker T63 and Stuart Appleby T64 with Mathew Goggin the only one of the group to miss the cut.