Tiger Woods has blamed one disastrous hole for ending his chances of success on the final day of The British Open.

The 36-year-old eventually finished joint third with fellow American Brandt Snedeker, four shots behind the victorious Ernie Els.

However, Woods had looked to be well in contention for the Claret Jug until he recorded a triple bogey at the sixth - where he took two attempts to exit a greenside bunker before three-putting the tricky hole.

"The problem is if I played left I wasn't assured I could get it to the gallery and get it out of that slope because if it rolls back in the bunker and I'm on the downslope then I've got no backswing," explained Woods.

"The game plan was to fire it into the bank, have it ricochet to the right and then have an angle to come back at it. Unfortunately it ricocheted to the left and almost hit me.

"Overall I'm pleased with the way I played, unfortunately just a couple here and there ended up costing me some momentum, especially at six."

Woods won the event in 2000, 2005 and 2006.