British Open 2012: What Tiger Woods Needs to Do to Win on Sunday

It's been six years since Tiger Woods won the 135th Open Championship at Royal Liverpool.

As he enters the final round of the British Open this Sunday, he sits alone in fourth place just five strokes off the leader Adam Scott.

With Graeme McDowell and Brandt Snedeker tied at seven under, it looks as though it may be Adam Scott's major to lose.

If there's one thing that Woods has proven to us time and time again, however, it's that nothing is impossible when he puts on his Sunday red shirt.

As Woods pursues his 15th career major tomorrow, there are a few things he'll need to take care of in order to emerge victorious.

Stay on the Fairway

Tiger has done a great job hitting fairways at Royal Lytham & St Annes this week, hitting 37 of 42 through the first three rounds.

In order for him to chase down Adam Scott at 11 under, he'll need to continue his solid performance off the tee.

Tiger has hit 65.3 percent of fairways this year according to current tour rankings, good enough to place him 37th among the field.

At the British Open this week, he's ranked second.

Graeme McDowell, who enters Sunday one stroke ahead of Tiger, has hit 72.5 percent of fairways this year and currently ranks second in the PGA Tour rankings.

Tiger will clearly have some competition battling for the top spot tomorrow, but his elevated play off the tee at this year's British Open is a huge reason why he remains in the hunt for the major championship.

If he can keep up his consistency and continue to hit nearly 90 percent of fairways on Sunday, he may give the final pairing of Scott and McDowell a reason to sweat as they approach the gallery on 18.

Attack the Pin

Tiger Woods played a very conservative third round on Saturday, settling for even par on the day.

Barring any slip-up from Adam Scott, he'll have his work cut out for him on Sunday as he enters the final round five strokes back.

In the first round of this year's British Open, Tiger started off hot, birdying four of the first seven holes to claim an early tournament lead.

He finished the final 11 holes with 10 pars and one bogey.

We'll need to see the sort of spark that Woods displayed early on Thursday for 18 holes in the final round, or else, Tiger will once again falter in his search of a 15th major.

He needs to hit his approach shots with confidence and attack the pin with conviction if he has any hope of victory.

Avoid the Bunkers

Royal Lytham & St Annes is arguably the most challenging venue to ever host the British Open. 

Despite various reports on the actual number of bunkers at the course, Jason Sobel of the Golf Channel has definitively determined there are a grand total of 205.

As if that didn't make the course hard enough, the drainage there is extremely poor.

With the water table being so close to the ground, it's nearly impossible to drain the bunkers prior to a round, as some of the players found out the hard way on Saturday.

If Tiger wants to climb the leaderboard tomorrow, he'll need to play aggressively while avoiding the sand traps at all costs.

Own the Green

Tiger Woods is still, in my mind, the best player in golf.

In order for him to take home the British Open this Sunday, he's going to need to improve upon his putting, however.

According to the PGA Tour Rankings, Tiger ranks 78th in one-putt percentage, draining his first putt 38.6 percent of the time.

Brandt Snedeker, who will be playing alongside him in the final round, ranks third.

With Woods sitting five strokes back before the start of the last round, he has no choice but to step up and one-putt more often than not in order to pick up ground on leader Adam Scott.

He'll also likely need a little help from Scott to have any chance at claiming yet another major championship.

He needs to worry about his own play first, though, especially his putting performance, before hoping for external factors to fall his way.