Tiger fails to pocket a win

AUGUSTA, Georgia – Tiger Woods may look back on the 2007 Masters as the one the got away, but it was not on Sunday that the damage was done, he insists.

Instead, Woods was left bemoaning the bogey-bogey finishes he endured in the first and third rounds on Thursday and Saturday, without which he felt he could have won. Without those, he would have been comfortably in the lead and with the security blanket he enjoys.All 12 of his wins in the majors have come when he has been leading or tied for the lead.Instead, he trailed Stuart Appleby by one stroke and although he overhauled the Australian, he was upstaged by Zach Johnson, a compatriot born within two months of him whose only claim to fame prior to winning at Augusta had been a win in the BellSouth Classic three years ago.”I was not disappointed with today,” Woods said.”I threw this tournament away on two days when I had two good rounds going and I went bogey, bogey.”So four bogeys in the last two holes basically cost me the tournament.”Even so, Woods did take the overall lead on Sunday five holes into his second round.But he held it only for a few brief moments until South African Rory Sabbatini rolled in a boomerang of a putt for an eagle at the par-five eighth.Clearly struggling with his game, Woods bogeyed the sixth and the 10th as Johnson moved up to top the leaderboard.He was in trouble off the tee on the 11th, but hit a brave shot from up against a tree that snapped the shaft of his five-iron in two and almost left him with a nasty hand injury.He skillfully saved par from there and the spring visibly came back into his step when he eagled the 13th after a marvellous second which nestled up near the back of the green and then burrowed back down the slope to four feet.But that was as far as he could get, parring the five remaining holes when birdies were what was needed.The biggest blow, he said, had come at the 15th, a par-5 that he normally would have expected to birdie except for his tee-shot landing right of the fairway with a tree in his line of sight to the green.”I had a chance there,” he said.”I had to hit some kind of miracle shot around that tree,” he said.”But I hit a crappy shot and ended up in the water and still somehow was able to make five.I kept myself in the ball game.”Woods failed to birdie the 16th and 17th and was left needing to hole out from around 125 yards at the last for an unlikely eagle that would have caught Johnson, already in the clubhouse, and forced a playoff.He went for the hole but was too far right and hung his head as his bid to win a third major in a row came to an end.It also left him on 12 majors for his career, six shy of Jack Nicklaus’ best-ever mark and on four Masters wins, two less than Nicklaus.Next he will tee off in June in the US Open at Oakmont, Pennsylvania, a course he has never played before, followed in July by the British Open at Carnoustie where he tied for seventh the last time it was played there in 1999.That is, of course, unless the birth of his first child, scheduled for early July, forces a change of plans.Nampa-AFPWithout those, he would have been comfortably in the lead and with the security blanket he enjoys.All 12 of his wins in the majors have come when he has been leading or tied for the lead.Instead, he trailed Stuart Appleby by one stroke and although he overhauled the Australian, he was upstaged by Zach Johnson, a compatriot born within two months of him whose only claim to fame prior to winning at Augusta had been a win in the BellSouth Classic three years ago.”I was not disappointed with today,” Woods said.”I threw this tournament away on two days when I had two good rounds going and I went bogey, bogey.”So four bogeys in the last two holes basically cost me the tournament.”Even so, Woods did take the overall lead on Sunday five holes into his second round.But he held it only for a few brief moments until South African Rory Sabbatini rolled in a boomerang of a putt for an eagle at the par-five eighth.Clearly struggling with his game, Woods bogeyed the sixth and the 10th as Johnson moved up to top the leaderboard.He was in trouble off the tee on the 11th, but hit a brave shot from up against a tree that snapped the shaft of his five-iron in two and almost left him with a nasty hand injury.He skillfully saved par from there and the spring visibly came back into his step when he eagled the 13th after a marvellous second which nestled up near the back of the green and then burrowed back down the slope to four feet.But that was as far as he could get, parring the five remaining holes when birdies were what was needed.The biggest blow, he said, had come at the 15th, a par-5 that he normally would have expected to birdie except for his tee-shot landing right of the fairway with a tree in his line of sight to the green.”I had a chance there,” he said.”I had to hit some kind of miracle shot around that tree,” he said.”But I hit a crappy shot and ended up in the water and still somehow was able to make five.I kept myself in the ball game.”Woods failed to birdie the 16th and 17th and was left needing to hole out from around 125 yards at the last for an unlikely eagle that would have caught Johnson, already in the clubhouse, and forced a playoff.He went for the hole but was too far right and hung his head as his bid to win a third major in a row came to an end.It also left him on 12 majors for his career, six shy of Jack Nicklaus’ best-ever mark and on four Masters wins, two less than Nicklaus.Next he will tee off in June in the US Open at Oakmont, Pennsylvania, a course he has never played before, followed in July by the British Open at Carnoustie where he tied for seventh the last time it was played there in 1999.That is, of course, unless the birth of his first child, scheduled for early July, forces a change of plans.Nampa-AFP