Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images

Tiger Woods hangs his head. Woods missed a great chance to contend for The Barclays title on Sunday, but his putter failed him, writes Doug Ferguson.

And the reason failure stands out so much is that it rarely happened before.

No other greens confounded Woods quite like the ones at Liberty National. It was only fitting that he missed a 7-foot putt at the end because he had done that all week. On his first hole of the tournament, Woods hit a pure 5-iron to 10 feet behind the hole at No. 10 and looked perplexed when it broke away from the cup.

Even as he tried to make a move Saturday, his 67 was slowed by missing an 8-foot eagle putt at No. 6 that stunned even one his playing partners, Zach Johnson. He missed from 5 feet later in the third round on No. 15 and was spewing expletives all the way to the next tee.

“It happens,” Woods said Sunday. “Not too many golf courses that you misread putts that badly. This golf course is one.”

Another course he mentioned was Fancourt in South Africa for the Presidents Cup in 2003. But that’s where Woods made a putt he called one of the most nerve-racking of his career. He was on the third playoff hole against Els, in near darkness, facing a 15-foot par putt that broke both ways, right up the ridge, then left as it moved down toward the hole.

The most famous putt was his 6-foot birdie on the 72nd hole of the 2000 PGA Championship which he made to force a playoff that he won against Bob May on his way to four consecutive majors.

This year, Woods won his first PGA Tour event since returning from reconstructive knee surgery by making a 15-foot birdie putt on the final hole at Bay Hill. It was the same green where he made a 25-foot birdie putt a year earlier to win by one shot, where he made a 15-footer to beat Phil Mickelson in 2001.

The list is long.

It will take more than two tournaments to put a dent in Woods’ mystique.

Besides, his loss is golf’s gain, for it now puts some doubt into the outcome — if not in Woods’ head, then the people watching, and even those trying to beat him.