Tiger who?

As a golfer, you know how far you've fallen when Jon Daly's crazily coloured trousers are getting more TV coverage than your round at St Andrews. Which is exactly what happened to Tiger Woods, writes the Daily Mirror's Oliver Holt...

It felt strange following Tiger Woods around the Old Course yesterday. He was so far down the field that he teed off nearly two hours before the final pairing. Most last days of The Open in previous years, he hadn't even left his rented house by then. In fact, knowing what we know now, he probably hadn't even left his bedroom by then.

The applause from the crowd as he walked down the first fairway at the Home Of Golf was sympathetic. They knew he didn't have a chance of winning. They knew his life is a mess. They knew that before his fall from grace, he was strongly tipped to win the first three Majors this year. And that he has not won any.

There were a few plaintive cries of 'come on Tiger' from little lads perched on stone walls. It took a while to work out the tone of their voice. Then the penny dropped: they felt sorry for him. No one has ever felt sorry for Tiger Woods before.

The cheers came from the galleries all around him but they were not for him. There were only a handful of journalists following him instead of the hordes that usually trail in his wake. There were roars for the men behind him, the protagonists in the drama, the players battling to try to catch Louis Oosthuizen. Woods was never one of those players. He was too far back to be even close to being part of the shake-up.

He was playing at the margins of the tournament. He was playing for a place. Not for the big prize. The leaderboards positioned all around the course had plenty of names on them but none of them was Woods. After the end of his level-par round, Woods looked up at the scoreboard again. That man Oosthuizen was leading by eight shots, just like Woods had done here in 2000 when he was heading for the Tiger Slam. Those days are long gone now.

This year was supposed to offer Woods the chance of a Grand Slam in a calendar year with Majors at his three favourite courses - Augusta, Pebble Beach and St Andrews. The scandal surrounding his private life that engulfed him last year and forced him to take five months away from the game put paid to that dream.

So if he can't win at Augusta, Pebble Beach or St Andrews, where can he win? And when can he win? There is a possibility that he will never get back to where he was before and there is certainly a possibility that this fallow year has cost him his chance of overhauling Jack Nicklaus's record of 18 Major victories.

When he stood in the marquee next to the clubhouse, talking about where it had all gone wrong and looking at a board that said he had finished in a tie for 23rd spot, alongside Stephen Gallacher, Trevor Immelman and Graeme McDowell, he dismissed the idea he had missed an opportunity by not winning any of the last three Majors.

"That's just the way it goes," Woods said. "I'm not going to win all of them. I've lost a lot more than I've won."

The way things are heading, his ratio isn't going to get any better.