Rory McIlroy has joined the grow­ing list of ‘villains’ who have denied Sergio Garcia the ultimate glory, but the Spaniard had nothing but praise for his rival after losing the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational to him by two shots on Sunday.

The 34-year-old Garcia contin­ued his brilliant form, finishing runner-up for the third time in his last three starts on the PGA Tour – the Travelers Championship, the Open Championship and now the Bridge­stone Invitational.

The purple patch has taken him to No3 in the world ranking, but he still retains the tag of being the ‘best player in the world never to have won a major’, or a WGC event.

And after losing out to Tiger Woods and Padraig Harrington earlier in his career during phases when he played outstanding golf, Garcia is now suffering at the hands of a resurgent McIlroy, having lost to him at both Royal Liverpool and Firestone Country Club.

On Sunday, Garcia led by three shots going into the final round, but was quickly overtaken by McIl­roy, who started with four birdies in his first five holes. He never re­linquished his position at the top, although Garcia pulled back to level the scores going into the back nine.

And Garcia, who shot a stunning 61 on the second day, said: “Obvi­ously, a little bit of a shame. Rory played really, really well. He shot a very comfortable 66.

“He’s obviously a really, really good player. You could see it today, the way he was hitting the ball out there, it was very nice.

“When he’s playing well, we know how good he can be. He really did what he needed to do, and unfortu­nately, I wasn’t up to the challenge, I guess. But at the end of the day, the only thing I can do is keep trying.

“I just had one of those days where it didn’t feel quite as good. But overall, I think it’s still a good week…my best week here ever. So I can’t be too disappointed about it.”

Garcia, who knocked a diamond out of the engagement ring of a lady spectator with an errant drive on the fifth hole, blamed his putting.

“I felt like I played okay, not amazing, but I didn’t feel comfort­able on the greens at all. With the spin of the greens changing quite dramatically after rain, they got a little bit slow from the last three days,” said Garcia after shooting a round of one-over-par 72.