Woods left to rue missed opportunities

Tiger Woods was left to rue another missed opportunity in a major as an error-strewn three-over 73 cost him the chance to win a fourth Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes.

Woods, without a victory in golf’s ‘big four’ since the 2008 US Open, began the final round on the Lancashire coast five strokes adrift of leader Adam Scott. Even so, he was still expected to make something of a charge and eat into the Australian’s advantage.

That, though, never materialised. Instead, Woods stuck to the conservative game plan he had adopted all week, preferring to hit irons off most tees, leaving himself long approach shots into increasingly firming greens. It was a plan that backfired, as he ran up a triple bogey seven at the sixth to all but end his hopes of glory.

“Overall, I’m pleased with the way I played,” said Woods. “Unfortunately just a couple of shots here and there ended up costing me some momentum, especially at six. I left a lot of putts short out there. The greens were a little bit slow and I tried to put some more hit in my stroke, but they were dying off the front of the lip.”

Despite another missed opportunity to close the gap on Jack Nicklaus’ record haul of 18 majors, Tiger insisted that he is not going to hit the panic button any time soon.

“It’s part of golf, we all go through these phases,” said Woods. “Some people it lasts entire careers. Others are a little bit shorter. Even the greatest players to ever play have all gone through little stretches like this. When your playing careers last 40 and 50 years, you’re going to have stretches like this.

“I finally feel like I’m really healthy and I’ve got my pop back in my swing, so I’m hitting the ball distances I know I can. Unfortunately, when I get out here with a little bit of adrenaline, it goes a little bit further, too.  It’s a combination of having my strength and my speed back, at the same time playing tournament golf. It’s not that far off.”

Woods, who climbs to world No.2 on the rankings, also spared a thought for Adam Scott after his dramatic collapse over the final four holes handed a surprise victory to Ernie Els.

Scott bogeyed his final four holes to blow a four-shot lead and Woods said: “It’s happened to all of us at one point or another. We’ve all been in positions to win golf tournaments and sometimes people go ahead and win them and take them away from you, other times we make mistakes. That’s just the way it goes.”