The third major golf tournament of the year went to South African Ernie Els who came from six shots back at the turn on Sunday to win his second British Open title and fourth major of his career over Australian Adam Scott who bogeyed the last four holes of the tournament at Royal Lytham and St. Annes in a stunning collapse that cost him his first major championship.

Els shot a four-under-par back-nine 32 to finish at 7 under, one better than Scott who looked most of the day as if he had the tournament locked up only to come completely apart on the last four holes, missing a short par putt to force a playoff on the last hole, his fourth straight bogey.

Tiger Woods started the final day five shots behind Scott but never seriously threatened to win his elusive 15th major title and was pretty much out of it after sticking his approach shot in a pot bunker on the sixth hole and coming away with a triple bogey seven.

Woods used a conservative game plan to fire a pair of 67’s on the first two days, but that strategy didn’t serve him well on the weekend as he continued to play iron off many of the tees, giving up lots of distance to keep his drives in the fairway and then finding the bunker on the sixth hole that pretty much finished him.

While he has won three times this year, Woods has not played like the old Woods in the major tournaments and that was the case again in the British Open when he missed a lot of putts that he used to make and seemed to play defensively much of the time, perhaps hoping not to lose the tournament instead of going after it the way he used to do before all his off-the-course troubles.

Can Tiger regain his winning magic at the PGA Championship next month, the last major of the year, and move a step closer to breaking Nicklaus’ record? Frankly, judging from his performance on Sunday at the British, it seems unlikely that he can turn the clock back and become the Tiger of old again, at least for now.

I have been around long enough to have watched both Nicklaus and Woods in their primes, and I still give the edge to Nicklaus as the best ever. Of course, unlike Woods, Nicklaus was never unhinged by domestic scandal and even won his last major at the age of 46 when he shot 30 on the back nine at Augusta, one of the greatest performances of all time.

Nicklaus also believed that it would be Woods who would break his record of 18 majors but that doesn’t seem as inevitable today as it did a few years ago when Woods was winning tournaments and majors on cruise control.

Yes, he has won three tournaments this year but in the majors, he has been a big disappointment even though he finished tied for third at the British. That’s not the Tiger we knew and while physically he still has game, the question is does he still have what it takes inside to win a major? Only time will give us the answer.