Woods has 'one of his worst putting weeks'

Tiger Woods has targeted his putting for improvement before the Masters in April after failing to defend his Dubai Desert Classic today.

Henrik Stenson won the tournament on a thrilling final day, edging Ernie Els by one shot, while Woods finished tied at third after carding a three-under-par 69.

The world number one only really threatened the top of the leaderboard in the last round after steady progress on the previous three days.

Woods carded a three-under-par 69 on Thursday and followed that up with successive 67s in the next two rounds.

And when he joined three other players at the top of the leaderboard today it appeared he was on course for another victory in Dubai.

But bogeys on the 10th and 11th saw him slip down the leaderboard and though he staged a recovery with a hat-trick of birdies from the 13th, it was not good enough to deny Stenson.

“That is one of the worst putting weeks I have had in a long time,” said the 31-year-old. “Very frustrating.

“I have just got a lot of work to do when I go home.

“I hit well enough to give myself chance but I just did not putt at all well. I putted poorly all week and it is frustrating because normally, I don’t really putt well on poor greens.

“I come over here to the best greens we have seen in a long time and I miss a bunch.”