Tiger Woods struggles to make headway in unlikely bid to make Open cut

A par on the first was a two-shot improvement from Thursday, when his approach had to be played from a fairway divot and plunged into the Swilcan Burn, while a first birdie of the day soon arrived from 28 feet on the third.

Tiger Woods tees off on the third hole during day two of The Open at the Old Course, St Andrews (Richard Sellers/PA)

Tiger Woods continued to face an uphill battle to avoid missing the cut in the Open for just the fourth time in his career on Friday.

The winner at St Andrews in both 2000 and 2005, Woods struggled to an opening 78 and calculated that he needed a second-round 66 to make the weekend, a score he last achieved in a major in the 2018 US PGA.