Their putting game deserted the New Zealand duo of Danny Lee and Ryan Fox and with it any chance of pushing for a strong finish at the World Cup of Golf at Melbourne's Kingston Heath yesterday.
Lee and Fox finished tied for 11th in the 28 team competition following a final round 67 in four-balls format. That left them at 10-under for the tournament, 10 shots back from the winning Denmark pairing of Soren Kjeldsen and Thorbjorn Olese.
There was probably no chance of catching the Danes, who took control after a team score of 60 in the second round, but Lee thought the Kiwis had a chance to push for a top five finish but putting let them down on Sunday.
Multiple putts hit the lip of the cup but failed to drop for the New Zealanders.
"We did good. I struggled with my putting today. We could have easily been 13 or 14-under, who knows. If we got it going earlier in the round we might have had much better momentum going into the back nine but I think I let down team New Zealand today," the world number 64 said.