Rory McIlroy does not believe a win is far away after finishing second at the BMW PGA Championship.
The Northern Irishman took a three-shot lead into the weekend at Wentworth Club but a final two days of of 71-70 was not enough to get the job done and McIlroy finished two shots behind West Course specialist Francesco Molinari.
The runner-up finish still represented his best result in a Rolex Series event and moved him to second in the Race to Dubai Rankings, and the four-time Major Championship winner does not believe his game is far away as he makes some minor alterations to his swing.
"It's close," he said. "It's very close. I've given myself a great chance here this week. I didn't quite pull it off but it's not far away.
"I get a bit down on myself because my expectations are high and with a 36-hole lead, I should have closed it out this week but that's not taking anything away from Francesco. He played a great weekend and bogey-free around here is some playing - he deserved the win.
"I think when you're working through a bit of a swing change or a swing tweak, it takes more than a week's work to try to bed it in and this is my first competitive start since trying to rectify things.
"It's not a bad week. I got off to a great start, I gave myself a nice cushion after 36 but there's still enough loose shots in that first 36 holes to know that it's not quite there.
"I could have maybe held it together a bit better over the final couple of days but I held in there, I scrambled well, I hung in tough."
Defending champion Alex Noren produced a closing 62 last season to claim the trophy and it looked like he would be the man to challenge again after birdies on the third, fourth, seventh, tenth and 12th.
A bogey on the next stalled his momentum and despite a birdie on the last, the Swede finished a shot behind McIlroy.
"I'm very pleased," he said. "Made my way around, maybe not hit all perfect shots out there but I played so much better the last two days than I did the first two rounds. So I'm very pleased about that and then very happy to make the putt on the last.
"We're all playing for a lot of points here and especially going into the Ryder Cup and the rest of the season. That's all you're looking for but also you're trying to get that win. I'm happy with the finish but it's so much fun on the back nine when you've got a chance."
Lucas Bjerregaard finished alongside Noren after a brilliant closing 65 handed the Dane a third consecutive top ten.
"It's been very solid all week," he said. "I didn't putt great Friday and Saturday, just didn't really get up-and-down when I needed to and killed momentum a little bit where Thursday and today were a little better.
"The game is getting there so looking forward to this next stretch of big events. It's been a really good week and I'm taking a lot of positives and a lot of confidence from here."
