Tiger Woods endures first round struggle

• Tiger Woods gets off to an awful start at St Andrews
• Cards a round of 76 to finish way down the field
• In danger of missing only his second cut in 21 Opens

Tiger Woods is already facing a monumental battle to make the cut in his fifth Open Championship appearance at St Andrews after carding a four-over-par 76 in his first round.

As the 14-time major winner signed his card, only Rod Pampling and Kevin Streelman had posted worse scores as he ended the first round in a similar position on the leaderboard to the one he found himself in at the US Open at Chambers Bay last month.

The 39-year-old, who won two of his three Open titles at the Home of Golf in 2000 and 2005, sunk his second shot to the first into the burn and made bogey – and it didn’t get much better for him as the round continued.

Using irons off the tee until the fourth, Woods was hitting it considerably shorter than playing partners Jason Day and Louis Oosthuizen, with his approach shots largely off-target.

CONTINUES BELOW… 

He got into further trouble on the par-5 fifth, ranked as the easiest hole on the course, hitting an awkward second shot out of the rough – where he shook his wrist afterwards – into more trouble near the green before making bogey.

During Woods’ first struggles, ESPN commentator and 2008 US Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger laid into the former world No.1 with comments such as: “It’s hard to watch the greatest player of this generation be a middle of the pack hack” and “You almost want to say, ‘who are you and what have you done to Tiger Woods?’”

Woods fared better on the tougher back nine, although he did drop to five-over-par following a bogey at the tenth, before he carded his first and only birdie of the day on the par-5 14th.

“Hopefully the conditions will be tough tomorrow” – Tiger Woods

“I was a little angered ,” said Tiger Woods. “But I figured I had 17 holes to fight throught it, and hopefully I can make some birdies out there, which I didn’t do.

“Hopefully the conditions will be tough tomorrow and I can put together a good round and we’ll move up the board progressively.”

Woods has only ever missed the cut once at an Open Championship in 20 previous appearances, which was at Turnberry in 2009.

Tiger Woods :: Too much to do?

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