Tiger tamed by a fickle game

The most sensational golfer in the history of the game refused, for the second day running, to enter the press tent which, prior to this week, had been his second home. Tiger Woods did not put up much of a defence of the world's oldest championship on a course for which he has fond memories.

Woods, who turned the 129th Open at St Andrews 12 months ago into a procession, never looked comfortable at Lytham and that is something of a mystery. Before turning professional five years ago, the anointed one won the silver medal here with an aggregate of 281, three under par. It included a round on the second day of 66.

Yesterday the world No 1, by a country mile, shot 71 for an aggregate of 283 as he relinquished the silver claret jug. "I'm feeling great,'' Woods said, from behind a wooden fence at the scorers' portable office.

"These courses are peculiar and that is why we love coming here. The mechanics of my swing have been a little bit off this week, although today I drove the ball beautifully... Golf is very fickle. I tried my best. I do appreciate what I have done and I'm a better judge than most people. It's not easy and I know how tough it is.''

To become a billionaire at the age of 25, the path needs to be something other than a stroll in the park.

Thus hitting his drive on the 18th on Saturday evening a few yards short of the Famous Grouse marquee in the tented metropolis, Woods declined an invitation to come into the press tent and instead walked at an Olympic rate ­ the police needed a horse to keep up with him ­ to the driving range.

Yesterday he did not have the excuse of having to work on his swing. He was simply in a hurry to drive out of Lytham and head for the nearest jet.

In the final round Tiger, who to his credit does not recognise a lost cause, began well, with birdies at the fourth, the fifth and the sixth, and finished well with birdies at the 16th and the 17th. But when he headed for home the demons that drove him to distraction, particularly in the third round, reappeared over his right shoulder.

The 12th, a par three of 198 yards, is one of the more uneventful holes on the links. Links? From the 12th you are about as close to the sea as Coronation Street. Woods managed to hit an iron into deep grass whence he had to chip out sideways. He did not execute that shot well and sent his Nike ball swishing across the fairway into more elephant grass. His chip hit the brow of a bunker and rolled backwards into the trap: a triple-bogey six and the game was up.

Not everybody was unhappy. The American television networks were covering every stroke of Woods' 130th Open and on this occasion there were lots of them.