Woods challege fades after tripe bogey

Tiger Woods's bid to mount a final-day charge in the British Open was scuppered on Sunday when he ran up an ugly triple-bogey six on the short 12th hole at Royal Lytham and St Annes.

The defending champion, two-under for his round and three- under for the championship at the time, pushed his tee shot into the right rough and then hit a flier over the back of the green.

His third ended up in a greenside pot bunker and, after hitting out to eight feet, he two-putted for a six to crash down the leaderboard into a share of 31st place.

He closed with a level-par 71, mixing five birdies with two bogeys and the disastrous six to finish at one-under-par 283, six behind early clubhouse leader Niclas Fasth of Sweden.

"My mechanics were just a bit off today but I enjoyed it out there," he said. "You are not going to play well every week and everyone who plays this game understands that.

"This week I grinded it the best way I could. I got a lot out of my scores this weekend and thank goodness I was chipping and putting well."

The world number one, chasing a sixth major title in his last eight starts, had begun the day five strokes off the lead. He got off to a stuttering start, though, when he dropped a shot at the par-three first.

He hit his tee shot through the back of the green and chipped to three feet, but missed the putt for par.

He bounced back, however, with a run of three straight birdies from the fourth to get to three-under overall, but then had to scramble three pars in a row to reach the turn in 33.

Successive pars on 10 and 11 were then followed by his triple-bogey at the 12th.

He dropped another shot at the difficult par-four 15th and, although he recovered with consecutive birdies at 16 and 17, he was fortunate to par the last when he found the public walkway with another wayward shot off the tee.

He was lucky with the lie of his ball, hitting a good second 20 feet from the hole and then two-putting for his even-par 71.

"I was pleased I was able to come back today because I got off to a terrible start bogeying one," he said.

"I'm not thrilled that I wasn't able to contend down the stretch but I had my chances out there today. If I had birdied seven with a nine-iron in my hand, and if I had got three or four more coming in, you never know."

"I just wasn't able to swing the club very well this week. Today, though, I drove it great, on a string. The only bad drive I hit all day was at 18."

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