For the second straight year Scott Hend has been beaten in extra time at the European Masters in Switzerland, the Queenslander losing out to England’s Matt Fitzpatrick at Crans-sur-Sierre.

Hend played superb golf to lead or share the lead all week but fell at the final hurdle on a long and dramatic Sunday.

After play was suspended Saturday evening following a lengthy weather delay, Hend was among 12 players forced to return early Sunday to complete their third round.

He put the finishing touches on a 1-over 71 to begin the final round with a three shot lead and despite a nervous start went to the turn 1-under and still in control of the tournament.

But as Fitzpatrick charged on the back nine Hend stalled with a string of pars to fall two behind the Englishman with four holes to play.

A birdie at 15 to a Fitzpatrick bogey at 17 saw the pair eventually finish regulation play tied at 14-under and heading back to the 18th tee for sudden death.

Both made par first time around but Hend looked in complete control at the second attempt when he hit a perfect drive followed by a lob wedge to less than six feet.

Fitzpatrick was more than three times that distance from the hole and when he ran his birdie putt past most expected Hend to hole out for the victory.

But the Queenslander had struggled with short putts early in the day and was haunted once again when he pulled his attempt wide of the mark to send the pair back to the tee for a third extra hole.

Seemingly rattled by the miss, Hend hit a poor tee shot into a fairway bunker and went on to make bogey to Fitzpatrick’s par, the loss particularly painful as he was also beaten in extra time by Alex Noren here last year.

However, while disappointed with the final result Hend will take plenty of positives back to the U.S. where he is competing in the four tournament Web.com Finals Series as he tries to earn a card on the PGA TOUR.

Also taking the positives from a disappointing Sunday will be Marcus Fraser who played his way into the final grouping Sunday but slipped 17 places down the leaderboard with a 2-over 72.

Fraser has struggled for form all year and while he will be far from pleased with his final day effort there was much to like about his play over the first three days.

New Zealand’s Ryan Fox impressed on debut at Crans-sur-Sierre with a T9 finish, three double bogeys for the week proving costly as he finished six shots out of the play-off.

Todd Sinnott made a terrific start to the tournament with scores of 65-66 to be T3 ahead of the weekend and was still T9 through 54 holes despite a third round 72.

However, he slipped 35 places down the standings with a Sunday 74, his 3-under total for the week three better than Brett Rumford and Sam Brazel at T54.

Jason Scrivener and Nathan Holman were the last of the Australasian to make the cut, Scrivener T74 at 4-over while Holman played the weekend for just the second time this year.

Wade Ormsby, Jason Norris and Andrew Dodt all missed the cut.