Tiger’s charge comes up short

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida — After finishing tied for 11th at the Players Championship on Sunday, Tiger Woods declared himself ready to win another title.

For the second day running, Woods plundered the first 12 holes at TPC Sawgrass, picking up six birdies.

But he was unable to finish quite so strongly, finding water at the island-green 17th for a double-bogey.

He blamed a gust of wind, rather than a bad shot, for that stumble, however.

“I felt good on every facet of the game and it’s weird not to mis-hit a shot today and only shoot 3-under,” said the 14-time major champion.

Generating as much clubhead speed with his driver as almost anyone in the field, the 42-year-old showed he has lost little of his power after last year’s spinal fusion surgery.

He also had good distance control with his irons and bounced back on the greens after putting woefully in his previous outing at Charlotte.

“I didn’t play particularly well the first couple of days but I turned it around this weekend,” Woods said after finishing seven strokes behind winner Webb Simpson.

“Unfortunately, I just didn’t cash in. If I would have had the game I had this weekend at the beginning of the week, I think I could have given Webb a little bit of a run.”

Woods will have only one more start, at the Memorial tournament in two weeks, to hone his game before the US Open at Shinnecock Hills.

He has been in contention in the final round in four of his eight starts this year.

“I’m not that far off from winning,” he said.

“There’s no way at the beginning of the year that I would have predicted I would have been at this point.”

Simpson’s stroll

Simpson heard the roars echoing across TPC Sawgrass as Woods mounted his charge, but in the end he had a large enough cushion to clinch a comfortable four-stroke victory.

The 2012 US Open champion was never seriously challenged after starting the day with a seven-shot lead, though Woods briefly got within four strokes after his six birdies on the first 12 holes.

“There was so much noise in front of us with Tiger,” said Simpson.

“His roars are definitely a different sound than everybody else’s but I knew he started 10 or 11 shots back, so he would have to do something really special.”