If Tiger Woods is going to win the British Open and end his four-year majorless drought, he’s going to have to go off script. Entering Sunday’s final round, Woods trails Adam Scott by five shots. He has never trailed headed into the final round of a major and won.
This is the 14th time Woods has trailed in a major by five or fewer strokes after three rounds. His best final-round rallies came from five strokes down in the 2002 PGA and 1998 British Open. In the PGA Woods shot a 67 at Hazeltine National (Minn.), but finished a shot behind Rich Beem. In the British, he fired a final round 66 at Carnoustie, but fell a stroke shy of a playoff between winner Mark O’Meara and runner-up Brian Watts.
2010 U.S. Open trailed by 5 finished 3 back
2010 Masters trailed by 4 finished 5 back
2007 U.S. Open trailed by 2 finished 1 back
2007 Masters trailed by 1 finished 2 back
2006 Masters trailed by 2 finished 3 back
2004 British trailed by 4 finished 7 back
2003 British trailed by 2 finished 2 back
2003 Masters trailed by 4 finished 9 back
2002 PGA trailed by 5 finished 1 back
1999 U.S. Open trailed by 2 finished 2 back
1998 PGA trailed by 5 finished 8 back
1998 British trailed by 5 finished 1 back
1998 Masters trailed by 5 finished 6 back
When Woods has led entering the final round, he has closed the deal 14 of 15 times. The exception was his loss in the 2009 to Y.E. Yang. Here are Woods’ results when leading entering the final rounds of majors.
2009 PGA led by 2 lost by 3
2008 U.S. Open led by 1 won playoff
2007 PGA led by 3 won by 2
2006 British led by 1 won by 2
2006 PGA tied/Luke Donald won by 5
2005 Masters led by 3 won playoff
2005 British led by 2 won by 5
2002 Masters tied/Retief Goosen won by 3
2002 U.S. Open led by 4 won by 3
2001 Masters led by 1 won by 2
2000 U.S. Open led by 10 won by 15
2000 British led by 6 won by 8
2000 PGA led by 1 won playoff
1999 PGA tied/Mike Weir won by 1
1997 Masters led by 9 won by 12
