Fourth place is not what I wanted: Woods

Playing for the first time ever since his infidelity stories shocked the world, Woods finished fourth after a three-under 69 final round on Sunday as his compatriot Phil Mickelson clinched his third Masters.

Woods, who has won 14 Major titles including four Augusta Masters trophies, said a poor weekend dented his chances.

"I finished fourth. Not what I wanted. As the week went on, I kept hitting the ball worse. I hit it better on Friday, but after that it was not very good. Too many mistakes. I hit the ball too poorly on the weekend," Woods told reporters.

Responding to whether extraneous events had impacted his game, Woods said, "I only enter events to win. I didn't hit it good enough. Consequently I'm not there."

Woods did not give a definite answer to when he would be playing next.
"I'm going to take a little time off and kind of re-evaluate things," he said.

The last time he emerged champion here was in 2005 and in 2009 he won the Australian Masters shortly before being embroiled in the sex scandal.

The scandal came to light after his wife Elin found out about his extramarital affair, which led to an argument and accident on November 27 when Woods crashed his SUV outside his Florida mansion sustaining minor injuries.

The golfer had apologized for his behavior and spent 45 days in rehab for sex-addiction and recently spoke of continuing his treatment.

Elin did not attend the Masters.
Woods insisted that his discernible dim appearance on the field was only because of a lackluster performance and not because anything else going on his private life.

"I think people are making way too much of a big deal of this thing. I was not feeling good. I hit a big snipe off the first hole and I don't know how people can think I should be happy about that," the golfer said.

"And I hit one of the worst, low, kind of low quack hook on 5. So I hadn't hit a good shot yet. I'm not going to be walking around there with a lot of pep in my step because I hadn't hit a good shot yet," he added.

The golf champion, however, said that he would take back some positives from the tournament.

"I gave myself a chance. I didn't hit the ball very good on this weekend, didn't putt well yesterday, I putted a little bit better today, which is good. But overall I gave myself a shot at it," he said.