Tiger Woods misses the cut on his return to golf

Woods was seven-over-par over the first two days' play (©GettyImages).

This certainly wasn’t the way that Tiger Woods would have hoped his comeback would end after failing to make the cut on the PGA Tour.

Although few would have expected Woods to be a serious contender this week at the Quickens Loans National tournament, this can only be considered a disappointment.

Missed cut

Woods failed to make the cut and did not play over the weekend, in his comeback tournament since corrective surgery on a pinched nerve in his back.

The good news for him and golf fans, is that there were no evident repercussions of this complaint, but he is still a long way off top form on this evidence.

Woods finished four shots behind the three-over-par score required to ensure he would be playing on Saturday and Sunday.

Remaining positive

The 14-time major champion is staying positive, though. He says it was an encouraging display and that only a few known issues would have to be worked on again, before he was firing on all cylinders.

In-truth, most areas of his game will have to show a drastic upturn in standard if he is to be in contention at the year’s third major, the British Open, which starts in July.

He was hoping that playing in this tournament will be a major help for him in finding his optimum performance level ahead of the Open.

Major drought

It has been six years since Woods has won a major, the longest drought of his entire professional career, and as the time passes, it looks more unlikely he will catch Jack Nicklaus major-winning record of 18.

Woods has already missed the US Masters and the US Open this year, but he hadn’t originally intended to return until playing at Hoylake, so this performance should simply be considered a bonus as he looks to play his way back into form.

Taking too negative a view on his display over the last two days would be harsh, as there were some positive signs, mixed in with a considerable amount of errors.

He made three birdies today, but five dropped shots and a double bogey meant that the good play was virtually irrelevant, as he made a score of 75.

It was a similar story on the first day, where he shot a 74, and it meant that only 11 of the 120 players were below him in the standings after Thursday’s and Friday’s play.