Tiger grateful after improbable Masters return: 'It was an unbelievable feeling'

Tiger Woods capped his remarkable return to the Masters with a final-round 78 on Sunday and said his 13-over par 301 was one of the greatest achievements of his career.

"For not winning an event, yes," the 15-time major champion said when asked if the performance ranked among his best. "Yes, without a doubt."

Woods, 14 months removed from a rollover car crash that left him with injuries so severe he feared he might lose his right leg, didn't challenge for a sixth green jacket on the weekend.

His back-to-back 78s on Saturday and Sunday were his highest-ever rounds at Augusta National and his 13-over par total his highest 72-hole score at the iconic Georgia course by eight strokes.

He was 47th when he walked off the course to cheers - set to be his worst Masters finish apart from a missed cut as an amateur.

But the week was never about the numbers.

"I don't think people really understand," Woods said of the arduous and still on-going rehabilitation of his lower right leg, surgically repaired with rods and pins and plates.

"The people who are close to me understand. They've seen it. Some of the players who are close to me have seen it and have seen some of the pictures and the things that I have had to endure."

Woods hadn't played a tournament since the 2020 Masters, delayed by the coronavirus pandemic to November of that year, and hadn't even walked 18 holes four days in a row since his accident.

His difficulty negotiating the hilly, 7,510-yard course was evident in Wood's deliberate, sometimes noticeably stiff gait. Occasionally he used a club as a support, gingerly bending his knees only slightly to read Augusta's dangerous greens.

When it was over, however, Woods knew he could withstand the rigors of a major championship.

"It's