TIGER MANIA WAVE BUILDS AS MASTERS NEARS —

THE gathering wave of Tigermania sweeping toward next month’s Masters will reach new heights at the Bay Hill Invitational this week, after a near miss at the Valspar Championship.

It was Englishman Paul Casey, not Tiger Woods, who ended his long title drought at the Innisbrook Resort in Florida on Sunday.

But that did little to dampen growing excitement around Woods, who finished one shot behind in a tie for second with Patrick Reed.

Television ratings figures from the tournament reflected Woods’s astonishing pulling power, perhaps even greater than in his pomp, as a more vulnerable 42-year-old continued his comeback from his fourth back surgery.

American network NBC’s audience for the third round, when Woods ensured he was in contention, were 181 per cent up on last year, making it the highest rating third-round broadcast anywhere in the past 12 years.

Now an increasingly confident Woods heads to Bay Hill and the tournament once hosted by the late Arnold Palmer, which he has won eight times, including his last start there five years ago.

And everything points toward a crescendo of excitement when he bids for a fifth Masters green jacket — a first since 2005 — at Augusta National from April 5-8. The winner of 14 major titles said he felt calm on Sunday as he chased a first win in almost five years, in just his fourth official event back from a spinal fusion.

But he was not quite good enough to catch a hot Casey, who shot a closing six-under par 65 to finish at 10 under, and then saw Woods (70) and Reed (68) fall just short of matching him.

Casey needed just 21 putts while Woods struggled to get his iron approach shots close and his putter was largely cold, except for a curling 45-foot birdie putt on the 17th which raised hopes of a playoff before he left his birdie putt short on the last.

“Today wasn’t quite as sharp as I would like to have had it but I had a good chance at winning this tournament,” Woods said.

“A couple of putts here and there and it could have been a different story.” AP