Tiger's Back: It's Official as Woods' Return Gathers Pace in Last Start Before Augusta

Tiger Woods' week might have ended in frustration but it could prove to be another major step in his comeback.

The 14-time Major winner finished tied fifth at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Florida eight strokes behind Rory McIlroy, who clinched his first win since September 2016.

Having played the front nine in two under on Sunday, Woods closed within one shot of the leaders at the Bay Hill Club, as he birdied the 10^th, 12^th and 13^th holes. The 42-year-old scrambled to save par at the 14^th and was 20 feet away from nailing a birdie putt at the 15^th.

With McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Rose setting a relentless pace at the front, the miss appeared to knock the wind out of Woods' sail and his tee shot at the 16^th landed out of bounds.

Wood bogeyed both the 16^th and 17^th on his way to a 10-under score and admitted he was responsible for the lack of momentum towards the end of his round.

"I didn't commit to it," Woods said of his drive at the 16^th, as reported by NBC.

"And that's on me for not committing. In the back of my mind I'm running through different scenarios, and it's on me. I didn't commit to either one of those three shots, and I hit a poor one.''

However, even an error-free final three holes would not have been enough for Woods to win, because McIlroy's 64 would have left him five strokes ahead of Woods, even had the latter birdied the 16^th and parred the final two holes.

Frustrating as the finish was, however, it was another step in the right direction for Woods, who looks to be approaching his best form after a nightmare couple of years.

After spending six months out of the game following his back surgery last year, Woods returned to action in the Hero World Challenge last December, where he briefly held the lead before finishing ninth in an 18-man field.

Further progress followed at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines at the end of January, and Woods was three shots off the lead on the final round of the Honda Classic in February and finished one shot behind winner Paul Casey at the Valspar Championship last week.

Having fallen to No. 1,199 in the world rankings before his comeback, Woods is now expected to move up to 105^th.

"If you would have given me this opportunity in December and January, I would have taken it in a heartbeat,'' was quoted as saying by ESPN. "Everything was an unknown. I didn't know what I was going to feel like, what I was going to do, what swing I was going to make.

"Especially Torrey Pines [the Farmers Insurance Open], was the rough going to be the same pain I was going to feel like I felt last year? I don't know. But coming through that, I've gotten a little better, a little bit sharper, and I worked my way up there into the leaderboard back-to-back weeks and had a chance, which is nice.''

In what was his last start before The Masters, Woods was second in strokes gained around the green and was eighth for strokes gained in putting, although he was only 71^st in terms of strokes gained off the tee.

Perhaps more worryingly ahead of Augusta, he hit just 34 of 56 fairways over the four days and his driver twice went missing on Sunday.

"If I can play with no pain and I can feel like I can make golf swings, I'll figure it out,'' he told ESPN. "I'm starting to piece it together tournament by tournament, and each tournament's gotten a little crisper and a little bit better.'