Tiger finishes well back in PGA Championship tuneup

Tiger Woods fired a par 70 in Sunday's final round of the World Golf Championships Bridgestone Invitational, finishing well off the pace in his first full tournament since the Masters last April. The 14-time major champion, chasing the all-time record of 18 major titles won by Jack Nicklaus, finished 72 holes on one-over 281 at Firestone Country Club, a course where the former World No. 1 had captured seven career titles. That left him 14 strokes off the pace of co-leaders Ryo Ishikawa of Japan and Adam Scott of Australia, Scott being helped by caddie Steve Williams, whom Woods fired last month after 12 years of working together. Woods suffered left knee and Achilles tendon injuries at the Masters and aggravated them in May at the Players Championship, when he managed only nine holes before withdrawing. Woods, who has not won any title since the Australian Masters in November of 2009 just before the start of his infamous sex scandal, will return to major competition next week at the 93rd PGA Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club. Ireland's Padraig Harrington and US 2012 Ryder Cup captain Davis Love will be paired with Woods for the first and second rounds of the year's final major championship. Woods has not won a major title since the 2008 US Open. On Sunday, Woods birdied the par-5 second and par-3 fifth but handed back both strokes with a double-bogey 6 at the sixth. Woods stumbled through with bogeys at eight, 10 and 13 but righted the ship with a late run of birdies at the par-3 15th, par-5 16th and par-4 17th before closing with a par.