Failure to conjure up Old Course magic epitomised Tiger's turbulent year

TIGER Woods' return to St Andrews had meant to be a glorious one. However, it was set not in a context of his previous two Open victories at the home of golf. Rather, it was trailed by revelations of his marriage troubles and his subsequent therapy for sex addiction.

Woods arrived as a sinner at the town's gates, though at least he turned up at all. There had been worries that Woods' troubles would see him take a lengthy break from the game, but he resolved to get back into the groove. He couldn't, however, hold on to his position as No 1 golfer in the world, with Lee Westwood having recently ended his record stay of 281 consecutive weeks at the top.

Woods didn't land in the British Isles until the Sunday before the Open began, opting instead to fly back to the States after participating as per usual in the JP McManus Pro-Am in Limerick. Normally Woods would have stayed on in Ireland to continue his preparations for links golf. But then these are different times for the golfer. He left to head back to Florida, explaining to a gathering of journalists in a packed media tent at the start of Open week that he had gone home "and had a great time with my kids". The emotional tug on his heart was understandable, but it had also been made more complicated by his own guilt and self-loathing.

Events would prove that even such a golfing phenomenon as Woods needs a clear head with which to scale the heights. Becoming the first man to win three Open title at St Andrews in a year of such turbulence would remain beyond him. Unhappily for Woods, this first media conference on this side of the Atlantic since he admitted to several instances of infidelity to his now former wife Elin remained the most noteworthy part of his return to major championship golf in Scotland. His challenge would drop off after an initially encouraging start. He had appeared a diminished figure at the media briefing. "He looks like someone who had done a lot of weeping," observed one reporter.

He aimed to be cordial when questions veered away from safer subjects such as his golf swing and putter choice. Woods caused something of a stir by confirming another break-up. The relationship between him and his previously trusty Scotty Cameron putter, in tandem with which he had won 13 majors in the previous 11 years, had also ended. But even this subject became a bit prickly when an American journalist injudiciously referred to the decision to stop using his old putter as being "like chucking a member of the family out".

The week was spent pussy-footing around the obviously greater dramas which had enveloped Woods since the end of the previous year, when news of his numerous affairs had first emerged. But Woods expected the reaction in Scotland to be a gracious one, and by and large it was.Indeed, there was as much interest in the attitude of the galleries towards this fallen icon as his own progress on the course, with Woods lining up alongside Justin Rose and Camilo Villegas when he teed-off on the Thursday morning, in the misty Fife rain.

There was little evidence of the kind of spectator disapproval which had been anticipated by some, as Woods began in unspectacular fashion. At the end of the second day, which had seen the course buffeted by winds strong enough to bring about a suspension in play, he was eight shots off the lead, though still in contention. But by the end of the Saturday this had slipped to 12 shots, and the likelihood of a Woods charge had been extinguished.

He ended up three-under-par for the tournament, a much too ordinary score when the champion, Louis Oosthuizen, carded 16-under. Double bogeys during his last round, at the fourth and the seventh holes, had seen Woods drift out of contention, leaving him with one final major in which to try and claim his 15th major win, and edge closer still to Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 titles. But, at the USPGA Championship in August, Woods again only briefly troubled the leaderboard. The closest he came to winning a major came earlier in the year, when he finished joint-fourth at both the Masters and US Open. In the end, his ultimately unsatisfying performance at St Andrews would sum up a difficult, winless year.