British Open - Woods in Hunt, but Missing Old Killer Instinct Peter Muhly/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images A wobbly finish cost Tiger Woods a chance to set up a head-to-head battle with the leader, Adam Scott, in the final round. ANNES, England Tiger Woods made a sterling save for par from behind the 12th hole to remain seven under par, and moments afterward, the manual scoreboard on the far side of the green pulled down Brandt Snedeker's score from the previous hole. Snedeker had bogeyed the 11th, and the reserved English crowd responded with a knowing murmur. Woods was now alone in second place behind Adam Scott, in or near the lead of the 141st British Open since Thursday. Woods gazed at the scoreboard and knew what it meant: keep that position, and he would be in the final pairing Sunday with Scott, a friend of his but still a friend whose trophy case contains 14 fewer major championships than the one in Woods's home. That is a pivotal advantage. Woods, 36, has always been so good at recognizing and exploiting momentum. In his prime, he breathed it into his lungs like the elixir that powers a superhero, and it made him almost unconquerable. Momentum was the tangible force of his competitive instinct, the will behind his might. On Saturday, with momentum enveloping him, lifting him up the leader board and boosting him toward the final holes of the third round, he closed out his day this way: At the 14th hole, Woods missed a level, straightaway, 12-foot birdie putt. On the 15th hole, he missed a 6-foot par putt that produced a bogey that dropped him into a tie for second place. By the time he got to the 16th hole, he was in third place and desperately needed a birdie to regain second. After standing in the middle of the 16th fairway with a wedge in his hand, he made par. Another makable birdie putt on the 18th slid past the hole. A few minutes later, Woods walked into the clubhouse in fourth place, already assigned to the penultimate pairing Sunday. The most asked question in golf - and even for those barely interested in golf but fascinated by Tiger Woods - has been the same since March: Is Tiger back? There are two answers, and the second matters far more than the first. If being back means hitting technically proficient shots with increasingly ordinary effort, if it means a relatively calm putting stroke, if it means sound course management and a placid existence because his marital and adultery scandal never comes up any longer - on or off the course - then Tiger is back. He has demonstrated that he is again performing at a level matched by few. With three PGA Tour victories this year, he would be player of the year if the vote were held today. Some would say that is the definition of being back on top. But if being back means seizing the major champion's moment and facing the attendant pressure with so few hiccups it intimidates others into flinching, if it means making the stellar effort seem routine, if it means drawing the momentum to your side and letting it propel you where you need to go to win not just a PGA Tour event but a major championship, then Tiger is not back. He may yet win Sunday; he is only five strokes behind Scott. That will be a definitive answer to most every question. But Saturday's late-round stagger to the finish has become all too familiar for Woods in the last 15 months. For a while, it seemed the problem was the health of his legs. Then it looked as if it was his putting stroke that caused pivotal slip-ups. Then it was his driving. Then it was a lack of practice time. All those issues have largely gone away or been resolved (just don't bring up his wedge play, but no one is perfect). The fact is Tiger Woods now regularly gets in position to do something majestic in the same ways he once habitually did superlative things in major championships. He is right there, the way he was always right there, and it seems inevitable that he will at least stay there and maybe stamp all over the competition during the final round. But these days, that has not happened. More commonly, Woods hits a shot, and as it tracks through the air, he gets a puzzled look on his face that we had almost never seen before 2010. The ball ends up in a bunker or, more commonly, over the green. He makes par instead of the birdie that would have shaken up the leader board. He tries to throw a haymaker at the field, but it misses. He is still standing, but so is everyone else. He still has a good chance, just as he does in Sunday's final round at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. And so does everyone else. He marches on, the momentum of the moment leaking from his countenance with every step. He is clearly getting better, or maybe closer. At the United States Open last month, Woods fell apart on Saturday. This time, he never fell apart, he just kicked away his best opportunity in the final 75 minutes. "I'm still in there," he said late Saturday. We'll see what happens tomorrow. He says that kind of thing all the time now. Over and over. Is Tiger back? Not yet. One more day to find out.