The Tiger Woods of old shows up for a few brief moments at the Quicken Loans National

Tiger Woods finished another 2015 tournament well out of contention, but his four-day stay at the Quicken Loans National was an improvement. It was hard to get much worse than his quiet missed cut result at St. Andrews, a course he’s owned and was supposed to mitigate many of his current weaknesses. But his 68-66-74-68 week at his own tourney in the DC area featured flashes of world class play (along with the many wild swings and inconsistencies that have pushed him to 266th in the world rankings).

The Friday 66 was the highlight round of his season and shot him up the leaderboard into third place. Even in that position, the expectation was that Tiger would have to grind through the weekend to hang around the top of the leaderboard at his own event. It’s where we are right now with Woods -- it comes and goes quickly, and every swing up on the tee is a high wire act.

Saturday’s round was the regression to the form we witnessed at that career-worst Memorial, U.S. Open and Open Championship at the Old Course. While most of the field poured in birdies on a gettable and easy Robert Trent Jones Golf Club (Troy Merritt set a new tournament record with a 10-under 61), Tiger went backwards with a 3-over 74 that knocked him from a late afternoon tee time to another early Sunday start. The 3-over was actually a better result than his play warranted, as Tiger bombed tee shots off the course and struggled to stay in play from start to finish.

The one highlight, however, was an obscene flop shot to a short-side pin at the 18th hole. Of course, the shot was necessitated by an awful drive and crazy recovery attempt that landed up near the grandstands, but it was still the kind of play that the vintage Woods would pull off in years past.

That only “saved” a bogey, so again, Tiger was not playing well. Earlier this year, however, he would not have even attempted that for fear of chunking it right into that bunker or skulling it straight through the green. From a short game standpoint, I supposed that’s encouraging, no?

Sunday’s round started much better than the Saturday slog, with Tiger hitting all his fairways and cruising to a 4-under 32 on the outward nine. It looked comparable to the birdie runs and form from the first two rounds, but as is always the case with this iteration of Tiger, it wouldn’t last. He started losing balls off the tee, lipping out short putts, squandering chances on par-5s, and spinning short wedge shots off the green and into the water. After five birdies in his first 10 holes, Tiger would bogey three of his next four to wreck his charge up the board.

In the midst of this awful stretch, Tiger again hit one of the best shots of his year. Again it was a recovery from a terrible drive and part of another bogey hole, but the attempt and execution were from a prior Tiger era. Just pulling the club prompted Golf Channel’s Nick Faldo to let out an exclamatory yelp.

Those two shots were vintage Tiger recovering from ugly shots made by current Tiger. The glimpses to the past were much more fun to watch than the wreckage at Chambers Bay or St. Andrews.

Tiger’s Saturday step back meant that he was finishing his final round right as the leaders were hitting the first tee, but he’ll still probably end up inside the top 25. He did not play particularly well for most of the weekend, but he did not miss the cut and he did not embarrass himself in the way he had at preceding 2015 events. It’s an improvement, and if you’re a deluded Tiger superfan, you can clutch those two recovery shots close to your chest.

The last positive week for Woods occurred at the Greenbrier, a lower-tier event that did nothing for his game at the British Open. He’s not qualified for next week’s WGC Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone, a place where he’s won eight times and always headlined. It’s quite possibly the one course he’s owned more than any other, and the fact that he can’t even get a spot because of his world ranking is another startling mile marker of this decline.

So we’ll see him next at the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, where he first publicly started working with Sean Foley five years ago. A lot has changed in those intervening years, and he’d probably take the T28 result he posted there last time. It will be the season’s fourth and final major, and because of his low FedExCup ranking, it’s likely Tiger’s last PGA Tour start of the season.