Tiger Woods rues cold putter as Open bid fails

Tiger Woods resigned himself to his fate after missing out on The Open he desperately wanted to land but couldn’t force into his hands.

Starting the day one under, Woods never advanced his score, instead falling back and pushing hard to recover as first playing partner Adam Scott and then Phil Mickelson forged ahead of him.

His 74 (+3) pushed Woods back to +2 and tied 6th for the championship he hoped would prove to be his 15th major. Instead, he had to watch as Mickelson claimed his first Open.

And Woods said he failed because of a cold putter: “I want everyone of these and I felt like I was playing really well across the whole week.

“But I had a hard time adjusting to the speeds. They were much slower today, much softer. I just couldn’t get the pace of these things. It was frustrating. I played well and had a couple of opportunities to make a couple of putts and I left them short.

“Evidently Phil’s 66 was gettable. The greens are slower and if you have the feel to hit it far enough up there into the greens you can get it done. But it’s having the confidence to throw it far enough in there, because all week they’ve been bouncing over.

“Adam and I were talking about it today; we were surprised at a couple of the balls that were checking up.

“If losing this one does feel any better at all, is that Phil got to 3 under. If it had been one it would have been a different story. I think a lot of us would be a little more ticked than we are now. But he posted 3 under – that’s a hell of a number.”

And on his five year major drought, Woods added: “I’ve won 14 and in that spell where I haven’t won since Torrey, I’ve been in there. It’s not like I’ve lost my card and not playing out here. I’ve won tournaments and been in probably about half of the majors on the back nine on Sunday with a chance to win during that stretch. I just haven’t done it yet. And hopefully it’ll be in a few weeks at the US PGA, because I’m very positive about the way I’ve played this week.”