Gullane, Scotland ? The collapse was so brutal and so complete it was hard to believe it was really Tiger Woods under the swoosh.

This kind of thing was supposed to happen to those who play against him, not the great man himself.

Tiger Woods lines up a putt while shielding himself from the elements. Woods carded an 81 on Saturday during the third round of the British Open at Gullane, Scotland.

In a cold, biting rain on the Scottish coast, the facade that Woods carefully built though his domination of the majors didn’t just crack. It crumbled, along with his chances to win golf’s Grand Slam.

Just when it seemed no one would challenge Woods on his way to history, Scottish weather and Woods’ own stunning ineptness combined to all but end his bid for all four major championships in one year.

The conditions were miserable, but so was his game. For the first time in his pro career, Woods couldn’t break 80.

On his face, there was a look of bewilderment, as if Woods couldn’t believe this was happening to him. The faces of the fans were likewise frozen in shock and not just because they were so cold they could hardly move.

“Thank God I was grinding,” Woods said. “It could have been a really high number.”

What it was was an 81, 10-over-par and two shots worse than anything Woods has shot as a pro.

What it did was put Woods 11 strokes behind Ernie Els, a player he usually owns in major championships.

Woods knew it was over.

“Yeah, probably there are too many guys between me and the lead,” Woods said. “All I can do tomorrow is shoot a low number and see what happens.”

That was actually the plan for Saturday’s third round, which began as most major championships do, with Woods primed to jump into the lead and his fellow competitors dreading the sight of his name moving up the leaderboard.

He had won the Masters and the U.S. Open with such little difficulty that other players were criticized for not taking him on. This didn’t figure to be much different.

This time, though, the others were so preoccupied with the rain that was coming sideways at them with numbing coldness that they couldn’t be concerned with what Woods was doing.

Not that they would have believed it, anyway.

“For the first time I didn’t even think about what Tiger was doing,” Els said. “Other days you might be looking at the leaderboard and waiting for his charge. I was just trying to survive.”

So was Woods, who only a day before had invited the bad conditions, hoping they would help him make up a two-shot deficit.

Almost on cue, as Woods stepped up to the first tee holding an umbrella, the weather went from dreary to dreadful. So did his mood as he took out a 2-iron and promptly hit it so far right he was almost past the knee-deep rough next to the East Lothian tourist bureau’s visitors tent.

Woods would go on to bogey the hole, but his troubles were just beginning.

He sprayed his tee shots into the rough on the next two holes. On the par-3 fourth hole he missed the green so badly he ended up in a walkway between deep cuts of rough.

And when Woods finally did hit a fairway off the tee on the par-5 fifth he promptly hit his second shot sideways into the heather and walked off the green with a double bogey.

“It was just tough, tough starting out,” Woods said. “It was just blowing so hard out there it was just difficult to stand. The ball was oscillating, the rain blowing. On top of that I just hit poor shots and you add that with conditions you’re not going to end up with good results.”

Woods had played through rain last month in the U.S. Open, though he got the luck of the draw and didn’t have to put up with the worst conditions in a wet second round.

Sergio Garcia did, and he complained that somehow Woods always seemed to get the breaks when he needed them.

Woods got no breaks this time. He may have missed the rain at Bethpage Black, but there was no way to escape what was blowing in off the Scottish coast.

“That rain actually hurt a little bit,” Woods said.

Woods went through glove after glove, trying to keep his grip dry. He took his hat off and went bareheaded so water wouldn’t drip from it.

Nothing seemed to help. And the more it went on, the worse it got.

Woods rolled his eyes in frustration after missing a rare birdie putt on the ninth hole to shoot 42 on the front. On the next hole, he slammed his club on the ground in disgust after having to hit out of the rough once again.

He was 11-over-par through 14 holes, the kind of score that might be good in a club “B” flight, but not for someone trying to win the British Open.

“It was just a tough day,” Woods said. “I tried all the way around.”