Tiger admits he fell short at US Open

Tiger Woods admitted he came up short at last week's US Open - despite playing well and striking the ball cleanly.

"I hit is just like I did at Memorial and, unfortunately, I didn't make anything. The greens are a little slow and bumpy, but you have to be committed to hitting it that hard, and I left a lot of putts short. Then when I tried to hit them harder, I gunned them past the holes. I didn't make the adjustment."

Woods was four shots off the pace - the very same number he dropped at a catastrophic end to the first round. However he refused to blame the course for his performance:

"This is a great golf course," Woods said, adding that he'd like to see Bethpage Black host another U.S. Open. "It's just that the USGA got the short end of the stick on the weather. We have yet to play it hard and fast the two years we've played. It was kind of getting that way in 2002 in the beginning of the week until it rained on Friday. This course would play so differently. They had to put a lot of the tees up because it was so soft, and I'm sure they did that on 18 because the fairway is basically underwater."

Although Tiger is definitely back from his injury, he is perhaps not so far ahead of the pack as before. Last year a relatively unknown player pushed him to the limit but he did win. This year, he gave it his all and a relatively unknown player kept his nerve and took his trophy.