Tiger Ends 2010 Tour Play Winless

Tiger Woods closed his 2010 golf tour season with one of his best rounds, but he finished a year without a title for the first time in his career.

World number-two Woods finished Sunday’s Australian Masters in Melbourne with a 6-under-par 65, matching his best score of the season. He made two eagles over the last four holes and played the last six holes in 6-under-par. It vaulted him into a fourth place finish, his highest in this forgettable season.

Australian Stuart Appleby won the tournament, ending a nine-year drought at home. He rallied from a seven-shot deficit with birdies on his last two holes for a 6-under 65.

Appleby knocked in a 30-foot par putt on the 16th hole to stay in the mix, and took the lead with a 25-footer for birdie on the 17th hole. He closed with a two-putt birdie on the 18th for a one-shot victory over third round co-leader Adam Bland of the United States. Bland missed a 10-foot eagle putt on the last hole that would have forced a playoff.

Woods won the Australian Masters a year ago for his 82nd title worldwide and a No. 1 ranking that no one could argue. But 12 days later, he ran his car into a tree outside his Florida home. That led to revelations that he had been cheating on his wife. Later in the year, he got a divorce.

Woods spent nearly five months out of golf, including two months in rehab at a Mississippi clinic before returning at Augusta National for The Masters in early April. Since then he has mostly been a non-factor on the tour.

Woods still has a chance for a win this year, but not in a regular tour event that counts in a golfer’s official victory total. He will play in the Chevron Challenge invitational charity tournament December 1 in California, where he has won four times.

Some information in this story was provided by AP and AFP.