'Meltdown!' Tiger Woods plays WORST HOLE of his CAREER as he suffers final day Masters nightmare (VIDEO)

Tiger Woods had a Sunday to forget at Augusta as he shot a 10 on the par-three 12th hole, finding the water on three separate occasions - the worst score he has posted on a hole in his near 30-year career.

The 44-year-old five-time Masters champion didn't look to be in a chance of claiming his sixth when play began early on Sunday but a little over half-way through his round, his chances hit a brick wall, or more specifically a water trap. 

Woods' first two shots sailed into Rae’s Creek, and another overshot its target to settle in a bunker - with his exit shot also getting inadvertently submerged. 

The resulting septuple-bogey moved Woods to 4 over par - and the irony of it coming at the 12th hole, where Woods moved ahead of the pack to win the tournament in a remarkable comeback last year, won't have been lost by the millions of socially distanced viewers watching the broadcast.

"I committed to the wrong wind," Woods told CBS afterwards. "The wind was off the right for the first two (golfers), then when I stepped in there it switched to howling off the left. The flag on 11 was howling off the left and I didn’t commit to the wind. I also got ahead of it and pushed it too, because I thought the wind was coming more off the right and it was off the left.

"That just started the problems from there," Woods added. "From there I hit a lot more shots and had a lot more experiences there in Rae’s creek."

It was a near-impossible task for Woods to repeat last year's heroics as he began the day 11 shots off the leader Dustin Johnson.

Woods did pick up the pace down the stretch and sank five birdies in the following six holes, finishing with a 76 to end one under par overall, but the damage had already been well and truly done by that stage.