The comeback has been well-documented. The results have been encouraging, impressive even. Yet there’s a gaping hole in Woods’ 2018 list of things to do:

Winning.

Woods, who turned winning into not only an art form but a regular occurrence during his days of dominance, has not won a tournament since 2013 and has not captured a major championship since 2008.

He’s come close in this latest comeback from back surgery, tying for second at the Valspar Championship in March.

He, too, was in contention the following week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, standing on the 16th tee in the final round just one shot out of the lead before faltering and finishing tied for fifth.

It wasn’t long ago that thoughts of Woods never again competing as a professional golfer were not far-fetched. His balky back, having endured four surgeries, was a mess and it had his life seemingly spiraling — as evidenced by that dubious Florida police camera footage from Memorial Day weekend in 2017.

Yet here is Woods, just 14 months removed from that humiliating DUI arrest on the side of the road, playing in his 12th tournament of the 2018 season when he tees it up at the 148th British Open this week at Carnoustie.

Is it unfair to wonder why Woods, stuck on 79 career wins for what must seem like an eternity to him, hasn’t won a tournament this year in his 11 starts?

Perhaps, but this is the life of elevated expectations he built for himself with his greatness.

It’s time for Woods to win. He’s done everything except win, and now the positive reinforcement assessments about how close he is to putting it all together after each tournament without a victory are becoming redundant.

And, for all the humble-pie talk he’s doled out tournament after tournament about how grateful he is just to be able to compete again, if you know Woods and his innate impatience, he has to be getting antsy having gone this long without hoisting a trophy.

Carnoustie will mark the first time Woods has played an Open Championship since 2015, when he missed the cut at St. Andrews. But he’s won three Claret Jugs — the last of which was in 2006 at Hoylake — so he knows how to do this. In his two Opens at Carnoustie, Woods finished tied for seventh in 1999 and tied for 12th in 2007, but was not in contention in either.

He comes to Scotland having finished tied for fourth in his most recent event, the Quicken Loans National, two weeks ago. That was his third top-five finish this season, which is impressive for some mere mortal players on the PGA Tour, but not enough for Woods’ standards.

Woods, too, has been disappointing in the two major championships played this season. He tied for 32nd at the Masters despite the two top-five finishes in the lead-up to Augusta — which suggested he might be ready to end his decade-long drought in search of his 15th major victory. He missed the U.S. Open cut last month at Shinnecock.

The theme to his year so far has been one part of his game holding him back from week to week. That, of course, is a common ailment for all common golfers. The longer it goes on for Woods suggests that he’s now merely just another player on the PGA Tour — capable of the occasional spurt of greatness one week before settling back into the middle of the pack the next.

When he first began the comeback at Torrey Pines in January, Woods’ short game was highly impressive but his driving was atrocious. As the year has progressed, Woods’ short game has regressed while his long game has improved. Most recently, his putting has held him back.

These were Woods’ words after his tie for fifth at Bay Hill, at a time when it felt like his comeback was about to deliver that long-awaited first victory since ’15: “I’m starting to piece it together tournament by tournament, and each tournament’s gotten a little crisper and a little bit better. If I can play with no pain and I can feel like I can make golf swings, I’ll figure it out.’’

By Woods’ account, he’s played pain-free, and yet he’s yet to figure it out.

Perhaps this week at Carnoustie, he will, because it’s time for him to win again if we’re to take this comeback seriously.