Tuesday 4 August 2015 11:46, UK
Tiger Woods will head into the final major of the season in high spirits after he made "big strides" during an encouraging performance at the Quicken Loans National.
Woods was just three shots off the lead at the halfway stage after vastly-improved rounds of 68 and 66, but his hopes of a first victory in two years were dashed by an erratic third-round 74 which left him nine strokes off the pace.
But the tournament host bounced back early on the final day, reaching five under for the round after 10 holes – including a monster 45-foot putt for birdie at the ninth – before undoing much of his excellent early work with a run of three bogeys in a torrid four-holes stretch.
He stopped the rot with a pair of steady pars and rolled in a 10-foot putt for birdie at the 17th, and a closing par earned him a 68 which lifted him to eight under for the week, 10 shots behind winner Troy Merritt.
The performance was Woods' best since the Masters in April and his lowest 72-hole score in relation to par since the 2013 BMW Championship.
Woods, who has plummeted to 266th in the world rankings, needed a win to qualify for next week's WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, but he is confident of atoning for missing back-to-back cuts in the last two majors when he tees up at Whistling Straits on August 13.
"I started off well and really hit the ball well and looking at the whole week in general, felt like I made some big strides," Woods said. "My short game is starting to come back to where it used to be. Everything is kind of trending in the correct direction now.
"This is much better, much, much, much better to have a round like today. I hit the ball really well and I didn't really miss a shot on the front nine. It was a very solid round. It was a mixed bag as far as results but the fact I had total control of the golf ball was nice."
Woods lost momentum when his three-foot putt for par horse-shoed around the cup at the 11th and stayed out, and he added: "I was five-under through 10 and really had it going. I took my eye off it. I thought I had made it. Next thing I know it's coming right back to my feet again. That definitely didn't feel very good."
The 39-year-old compounded the error when he found water off the tee at the 12th, and his third-shot into the par-five 14th pitched short of the pin and spun back into the hazard.
