Finishing ten shots behind eventual winner Stephen Gallacher, Tiger Woods proved that golf can often be a game of small margins.

The American was just one-under par on his final round, finishing down the field in tied 41st place at six-under par 282.

While the world No1 won’t exactly look back on this week as an opportunity missed, he does know it could have been so much better without much alteration to his round.

“I turned it around too late,” said Woods, who finished with three birdies in a row. “I drove great today, I was piping it all day, my iron game wasn’t as sharp as I’d like and I had a lot of lip outs, I had seven lip outs – that’s quite a few.

“The long game was frustrating all week, but I hit so many good putts, they just kept lipping out, my pace must have been a fraction off, the grain would snag it or it’d blow right through it.

“It was just one of those weeks. There’s nothing you can do about it, just look to practice and go forward.”

Woods came off the course relaxed and in surprisingly high spirits despite a poor tournament by his stratospheric standards.

An average front-nine saw him go out at one-over par, finishing with a bogey and a par before a spotty back-nine.

A birdie on the 10th briefly raised hopes of a Tiger fightback, but three pars were followed by a pair of bogeys. With any hope of a decent score gone, Tiger finally found his touch, finishing on a high with three straight birdies which pleased the huge crowds following him.

Woods believed his round of 71 betrayed the quality of golf that he played and insists there are only minor changes, in driving and putting, required to get his game back on track.

“I made a quick easy fix to my grip and from then on I drove great,” said the American. “I’ll definitely work on my putting, I need to get dead speed on those putts, but as far as my lines are concerned, I’m hitting my lines, I just need to concentrate on speed."