Woods retains number one ranking

Tiger Woods tonight suffered his worst tournament finish as a professional - but still held onto his position as world number one.

With Woods finishing joint 78th in the 80-man field after a closing round of 77, Phil Mickelson knew he needed to finish fourth or better to move top of the world rankings.

The US Masters champion was joint 10th overnight and four shots off the lead, but endured a nightmare front nine of 41 to end his chances of ending Woods’ five-year reign.

After finding a greenside bunker in two on the par-five second, Mickelson surprisingly thinned his recovery well over the green to run up a bogey six.

Worse was to come with a hat-trick of bogeys from the sixth followed by a double bogey six on the ninth, while yet more dropped shots on the 12th and 13th left Mickelson eight over par for the day and down in 47th place.

At three over par he was 14 shots off the lead shared by American duo Hunter Mahan and Sean O’Hair, who had played 10 and seven holes respectively.

Earlier in the day, Woods had carded three birdies, six bogeys and two double bogeys to finish 18 over par at Firestone, a venue where he had won on his previous four visits and a US Tour record seven times in all.

That set an unwanted record for the world number one’s highest 72-hole score in relation to par, while his total of 298 was also his highest score through four rounds of his PGA Tour career.

Woods’ previous worst finish as a professional in an event in which he played four rounds was a tie for 60th at the 1996 Greater Milwaukee Open, his professional debut.

Speaking to reporters after his round, Woods said: “Shooting 18 over is no fun. It’s tough.

“The only thing I can say is that all week I was patient. Unfortunately that’s not enough.”

Woods is currently outside the automatic qualifying places for the US Ryder Cup team with just one counting event remaining.

And asked if he wanted to play at Celtic Manor from October 1-3, he added: “Not playing like this. I would not help the team if I was playing like this.

“I think I can turn it around. We have a lot of time between now and then, which is good.”