Tiger Woods: Poor Finish Does Not Make Tiger's Showing at Abu Dhabi a Failure

Tiger Woods had a legit shot to win his 2012 debut at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, as he entered the fourth and final round with a share of the lead.

Alas, it was not to be. Tiger shot an even 72, finishing tied for third behind surprise winner Robert Rock and Ulsterman wunderkind Rory McIlroy. 

Nuts. 

There was no moaning for Tiger after the proceedings had wrapped up. Just honesty. He told it like it was, and it wasn't complicated.

"I just felt I was a touch off,'' he said, via ESPN.com. "Obviously the ultimate goal is to win and I didn't win. I played well enough I thought to win the golf tournament. Unfortunately I just didn't get it done.''

He's not going to do it, but it's okay for us to look on the bright side of life in this situation. Sure, Tiger didn't win at Abu Dhabi, but he has now finished in the top three in each of his last three stroke-play events. One of those was a win at the Chevron World Challenge.

Because the Chevron World Challenge is not an "official" event, Tiger doesn't have any official victories in his last three contests. What he does have to boast about, however, is consistency.

Being able to boast about mere consistency is a far cry from what Tiger used to be able to boast about, but he'll take it. Consistency is something that has eluded him over the last two years, so the progress he's made in his last three tournaments, including Abi Dhabi, is a pretty big step forward. The next step up from here is consistent domination, which is something we know Tiger is capable of.

Tiger didn't need to get back to dominating in his 2012 debut. That would have been nice, but it's a long season and there are bigger, more important tournaments laced throughout. If this is the start, it stands to reason that the middle and the end will only be better.

Yeah, I know, we've been down this hypothetical road before. Tiger has looked "almost back" on several occasions in the last two years, but he hasn't quite been able to be fully "back." How do we know that we're not being fooled again?

Two reasons. First and foremost, Tiger is healthy. As long as he stays healthy, he'll be able to stay out on the course and avoid getting rusty. In addition, Tiger has been working with Sean Foley for well over a year now, and his new-found consistency can be taken as a sign that Foley's work is starting to pay off.

So as long as Tiger can stay healthy, things can only get better. It's going to take a little more time, but he's not that far off from being his old self. 

How will we know when Tiger is back to being his old self?

Well, his old self would have sealed the deal at Abu Dhabi. That self didn't show up, but he was nearby.

To use Tiger's own words, he was just a touch off.