Woods turns attention to Melbourne after disappointing World Challenge

Woods turns attention to Melbourne after disappointing World Challenge
By Reuters
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(Reuters) - Tiger Woods finished a disappointing fourth behind winner Henrik Stenson at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas on Saturday before turning his attention towards his role as American playing captain at next week's Presidents Cup.

The tournament host was tied for the lead with five holes left at Albany Golf Club on the island of New Providence, but bogeyed the 14th hole after three poor shots in a row and was never a factor thereafter.

"I had my chances," Woods said in a greenside interview after carding three-under-par 69 to finish four strokes behind Stenson.

"I didn't make a lot of putts, a lot of birdies on the weekend.

"I had a lot of good opportunities to put the ball in there close from where I drove it and just didn't quite hit it close enough. (Was) just outside that range and consequently ended up short."

Woods's problems at the short par-four 14th began when he yanked his drive and ended up in a nasty lie in a waste bunker near the green, from where he pretty much had to hit and hope that the ball came of the sand with the appropriate speed, spin and trajectory.

But he fired his second shot over the green, before fluffing a chip that failed to get up the slope and rolled back almost to his feet.

Woods will have plenty of time on the day-long flight to Australia to contemplate what went wrong and put it right as he leads the United States against the Internationals at Royal Melbourne.

He plans to talk things over with his team on the charter flight.

"We're going to be locked up in a tin can for 23 hours, so we're just going to enjoy the ride down there and do a little bit of talking, a couple of meetings here and there on the flight so we all have an understanding of what our roles are going to be down there," he said.

Woods has researched the weather forecast for Melbourne, where scorching temperatures are expected on Monday before a big change brings in cool temperatures for the tournament itself.

"Typical Melbourne," Woods said of a city that famously prides itself on often having four seasons in one day.

(Reporting by Andrew Both in Cary, North Carolina; editing by Clare Fallon)

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