sport news RIATH AL-SAMARRAI: This weary, wounded Tiger is still a sight to lift a day for ... trends now

It wasn’t the conclusion Tiger Woods wanted but it also wasn’t the end. If he proved anything across his week at the Masters, it is that he has retained his capacity to amaze well beyond his time as a contender for titles.

This trip was never going to end with another, no matter what he may have told himself. That jacket was always heading for one of the men not yet on the course when he left it at 1.30pm, soaked in sweat and holding an ugly scorecard.

But success can live in many guises and for Woods there was triumph to be found in those 77 blows of his closing round. Just as it could be found in the 82 comprising his worst ever loop of a major on Saturday.

Combined, those numbers left him sitting dead last of those who made the cut, but there was victory in that too. Not the sort he would care for. But how many great players didn’t make the cut here?

As a starting point you can list Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Viktor Hovland. You can also add Wyndham Clark and Brian Harman, who both won majors last year.

They did not reach the weekend, but Woods did for a record 24th time in succession on these grounds. After everything that has failed in his body, after all the difficulties he has brought on himself, he is still pushing out boundaries.

And that is to be admired, even if his Saturday and Sunday laps were proof that sport loves nothing more than to follow a tickle with a smack in the chops.

Again, he won’t see it that way, which is why he signed for 77 and then spoke of his feeling that maybe, with a few more things going in his favour, he could have matched the 66 shot by Tom Kim. But that’s a conversation about delusion. Just as it was when he said he could win ahead of the tournament and once more after two rounds. A harmless delusion but a delusion nonetheless.

He won’t win again in the way he most cherishes, but he keeps on winning in what he shows in the grind. In how he outsmarted Augusta at its most vicious in the winds on Friday. In how he made it to the finish line of a major for the first time in two long years.

‘It was a good week all around,’ he said. ‘I think that coming in here, not having played a full tournament in a very long time, it was a good fight on Thursday and Friday.

‘Unfortunately yesterday it didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted it to. Today the round that Tom is playing (a 66) I thought I had in my system. Unfortunately, I didn’t produce it.

‘I need to keep the motor going, keep the body moving, keep getting stronger, keep progressing.’