Woods watched it sail to the left and hung his head when he received the signal that it was out of bounds.

He drilled the next tee shot 358 yards down the middle, hit a wedge to 25 feet and missed the par putt.

"It's not that hard of a hole," Woods said. "I wasn't committed to either one of the three shots I was supposed to hit.

Woods won all eight of his titles at the Arnold Palmer Invitational playing in the final group. He was five shots behind going into the final round, though he had nine players - including three major champions - in front of him.

He began creeping up on the leaders with birdies on the par 5s on the front. He was four shots behind going to the back nine when he began his run with five one-putts in five holes, three of them for birdie.

When he made birdie from 15 feet on the fringe, he was one shot behind and the enormous crowd could be heard everywhere on the course.

Woods still had plenty of work left, and he knew it.

"Even though I got up there, I knew I had to keep making birdies. Those guys had so many holes behind me," Woods said.

"I got to 16 and figured I had to play the last three in 3 under to have a chance. But even that wouldn't be good enough the way Rory was playing."

Moments after Woods' tee shot when out of bounds, McIlroy made birdie putts from 15 feet on No 13 and 20 feet on No 14, and if that wasn't enough, he chipped in from 40 feet on the 15th to start pulling away.

One thing was clear during the Florida swing. That red shirt on Sunday is back in vogue.

Woods finished 12th at the Honda Classic, was a runner-up in his first time playing the Valspar Championship and tied for fifth at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

"If you would have asked me at the beginning of the year that I would have had a chance to win two golf tournaments, I would have taken that in a heartbeat," he said.

Associated Press