 Woods hit his tee shot on the 15th out-of-bounds on his way to defeat
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Tiger Woods lost 4&2 to Tim Clark to crash out of the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship in the second round.
But the world number one, making his comeback after major knee surgery, refused to be too downcast.
"I hit one bad eight iron and one bad drive so I'm happy with the way I was striking the ball," he said.
"Tim is a wonderful player and he made birdies while I didn't sink enough putts. I feel great, though, and I will go home to evaluate what to do next."
Woods jumped into an early lead with a birdie at the second but Clark hit back to win five and six.
Woods restored parity with a birdie on seven, but his South African opponent took command with consecutive birdies on 11, 12 and 13.
Woods holed an outstanding bunker shot on 14 to reduce the gap to two, but the American's challenge was effectively ended by a wayward tee shot on the driveable par four 15th.
He blocked his drive out to the right, but it bounced off a cart path into the desert and out-of-bounds.
Woods trudged back to the tee and found the middle of the putting surface with his third shot, but he missed the par putt, leaving Clark with two putts from 20 feet to go three up with three to play.
The South African then hit his tee shot on the par three 16th to four feet while Woods missed the green to the right.
When his chip stopped 18 inches short of the hole, he removed his cap to signal the end of his comeback.
"I had to try and forget who I was playing," said Clark after his victory. I played him here a couple of years ago so I did know what to expect but I was a little nervous on the first tee.
"He may have been a little rusty but he was still going to be able to play some shots that I couldn't.
"He holed a great bunker shot on 14 and it was game on again, but he made a couple of mistakes near the end."
Clark will play Rory McIlroy in round three after the Irishman birdied the last two holes to beat Hunter Mahan one up.
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