Woods' dramatic charge finally fizzles at very end

Tiger Woods' final-round 68 was easily his best score of the week and a pleasant surprise, considering his poor start. But his hopes of a historic comeback victory ended with a bogey on the 17th.

By T.J. Auclair, PGA.com Interactive Producer

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- If you listened to Tiger Woods, you might think the 73rd Masters was a complete failure.

Just ask how he felt about his swing.

“It was just terrible,” he said. “I don’t know what was going on. It was just frustrating.”

And that was after a 4-under 68 in Sunday’s final round, his best score of the week. At 8-under 280, Woods tied for sixth in his first major appearance since returning from reconstructive surgery on his left knee. It was his 10th top-10 finish at the Masters.

Sunday’s low score was a pleasant surprise, considering how poorly the round started out. With his opening tee shot, Woods delivered a monster-sized hook that nearly came to rest in the eighth fairway. He recovered for a miraculous par, setting the stage for what would be an all-around dramatic day.

“I hit it so bad warming up today, I was hitting quick hooks, blocks,” Woods said. “You name it, I hit it all on the range, and then on the very first hole I almost hit it into eighth fairway. It’s one of the worst tee shots I’ve ever hit starting out.”

Woods began the round trailing by seven shots. Even for Tiger Woods, that’s a large margin to make up. He did come back from five shots on the final day to take down Sean O’Hair at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard two weeks ago, but that wasn’t a major. In fact, he’s never come from behind after 54 holes to win a major.

Then again, when you have 14 majors to your credit, you don’t have to come from behind too often.

As impossible as a come-from-behind-win seemed, Woods nearly made it possible.

A birdie on the par-5 second hole put him on the friendly side of par. He plugged along with pars until the par-5 eighth hole, when he drove the crowds crazy by holing a 25-foot putt for eagle to get to 3 under for the day, 7 under for the tournament and, at the time, within four shots of the lead.

Things really got interesting on the back nine. Woods birdied the two par 5s, Nos. 13 and 15. On 15, he just missed an eagle putt from roughly 15 feet. And then at the par-3 16th, with the famous front-left Sunday pin placement, Woods hit his tee shot to within three feet, setting up a short birdie.

At the time, the birdie got him to 10 under and within one shot of the lead. However, he found trouble off the tee on No. 17 and took a devastating bogey, putting to bed any chance of an unlikely win.

“When I birdied No. 16, obviously I was right there and hit a good tee shot down 17, the wind held it just enough, wouldn’t let it cut back, and consequently, I was dead from there,” he said.

The sting of the bogey at No. 17 carried over to the closing hole. Woods dropped one last shot on the 72nd hole and left Augusta National without a Green Jacket for the fourth straight year. Since 1997, Woods had never gone more than three years without winning a Masters.

“I fought my swing all day and just kind of Band-Aided around and almost won the tournament with a Band-Aid swing today,” he said.

“I was trying to post 11, shoot 65 today, and I thought that would have been a good number to post. Obviously, I didn’t do it.”