Shane Lowry suffered a spectacular meltdown as Nico Echavarria claimed his third PGA Tour title at the Cognizant Classic at PGA National in Florida.

Lowry led by three shots with three holes to play at 19-under par, but Echavarria prevailed by two shots as the Irishman dumped two balls in the water down the closing stretch.

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The Colombian finished 17-under par, having fired a five-under final round 66 to hold of Lowry, Taylor Moore and Austin Smotherman, who shared second place.

“I told my wife on Monday that I think I can win this week,” Echavarria said.

“I hit 18 on greens on Friday at Riviera. I missed the cut by one but I still had a good sense that the game was in the right place.

“We knew that this course fits me well. It’s a ball strikers course. You don’t need to have a lot of distance out here.”

Lowry became the latest victim of ‘The Bear Trap’, holes 15 to 17 at PGA National named for Jack Nicklaus, that is arguably the toughest three-hole stretch on Tour.

He sprayed his tee shot into the water to the right of the fairway at 16.

The number on his scorecard could have been worse than a six if not for an impressive save from a greenside bunker.

But things got worse at the par three 17th as another nasty slice found the water.

Another double bogey was the result, effectively handing Echavarria the trophy in the group in front and costing him significant dollars as well as a fourth PGA Tour title.

Echavarria pocketed US$1.728 million (A$2.45m) for his efforts, while Lowry is expected to earn US$726,400 (A$1.029m) for sharing runner-up honours.

“I’m at a loss. I feel bad for Shane,” commentator Rich Beem said.

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There was a brief moment where Lowry looked like he may hole out for eagle from the greenside bunker at the par 5 18th to force a playoff.

But it rolled past the cup and he two-putted for par.

Lowry had not made a double bogey in 305 holes on the PGA Tour before his collapse, but it is the second time this year that he has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

The Ryder Cup star led by a shot on the final hole in Dubai in January, but rocketed a bunker shot through the green and into the water on his way to making double bogey and losing the tournament.

“I’m obviously extremely disappointed. I had the tournament in my hands, and I threw it away. What more can I say? That’s twice this year now so far. I’m getting good at it,” Lowry said.

“Yeah, look, what can I say? I played unbelievable all day, and one bad shot on 16 completely threw me for the last three holes. It’s never happened to me before.

“I said to (caddie) Darren (Reynolds), how do I feel like this now when I went through what I did last September in Bethpage and got through that fine?

“I just felt like it was weird out there; I just really — yeah, just couldn’t feel the club face the last three holes then after my tee shot on 16. It was strange. What can I say? It’s very disappointing.

“Geez, this is going to be hard to take. Dubai was hard at the start of the year, but this is going to be pretty hard.”

Lowry also revealed the heartache of desperately wanting to win in front of his daughter for the first time in his career.

“The hardest thing about today is I’ve never won in front of my four-year-old, and she was there waiting for me,” he said.

“Yeah, I only wanted it for her today. I didn’t want it for — I don’t care about anything else. I wanted it so bad. Just to see her little ginger hair running down the 18th green would have been the most special thing in the world.

“I thought I had it. I thought I was going to win. I didn’t get ahead of myself, but I felt so comfortable out there, and then yeah, tried to get a lot out of my 3-iron on 16 and did the only thing I couldn’t really do.”