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Tiger Woods struggles with the putter — he ranked 80th in the U.S. Open — denied him a great opportunity to win a 10th major.

Woods has won a lot of these tee parties, but he has yet to win one of the Grand Slam kind by coming from behind in the final round. He won his fourth Masters in April, there can be no denying, but it is hard to imagine he might have won any of the other majors playing the same way.

He shot a 1-over 37 on the back, missed three of the last four fairways and finished bogey-bogey to fall into a sudden-death playoff with Chris DiMarco. Had DiMarco’s near-miss chip dropped for him, Tiger would have been a tough-luck loser.

Granted, would-haves and could-haves mean nothing in sports, or in life. The bottom line is non-negotiable. Woods shot a 69 on Sunday, only Campbell matched it. “That means I’ve come a long way,” Woods added. “And for all the people that have slammed me for making the (swing) changes, now you understand why I did it.”

Well, yes and no. These quid pro quo moments suggest the re-invented Woods, the Hank Haney version, still has a ways to go. Or they suggest the Tiger-Slam version, the one that had all four majors on the mantel at once, might never be seen again.

Woods’ three wins this season — as opposed to only one on the PGA Tour last year — certainly indicate he is among the best again. But these Sunday scratches on the paint demonstrate he is not yet infallible. There is still work to be done before there is a Slam to be won.

The runner-up in the major was the second for Woods, Jack Nicklaus had 19 of them. The value of second place is open to interpretation.

“Depends on how you get there, you know?” Woods said. “If you back door it and come out of nowhere to get a second, then yeah. But if you feel you had a chance to win and you didn’t take that opportunity, then it’s disappointing.

“The two seconds I’ve had, I’ve had wonderful opportunities to win both of them, the PGA at Hazeltine and now here. Two wonderful opportunities and I didn’t get it done going down through the stretch.”

Looming is the British Open at St. Andrews, a place where Woods won in record fashion in 2000, a place where he stretched out. The comparisons between old swing and new swing will be inevitable. But Woods cautions: it could be an entirely different golf course.

“It depends on the weather,” he said. “If you play difficult pin locations with no wind, like we did last time … I shot 19-under … St. Andrews is really not that hard a golf course. If the wind blows, you have what John Daly ended up winning with and you hope to get under par. It’s kind of a crap shoot.”

St. Andrews could be a crowning moment. If Woods is truly back, he better remember his putter.