Tiger Woods was headed for a third straight missed cut in the Open as Ireland’s Shane Lowry continued his eventful bid for a second Claret Jug on day two at Royal Troon.
Woods had targeted a second round in the mid-60s to “get something going on the weekend” following an opening 79, but that quickly became a forlorn hope despite better conditions for the early starters.
A clumsy chip from right of the green on the second led to a double bogey and the 15-time major champion slumped to 11 over par when he was unable to save par from a bunker on the fifth.
Woods made a record 24th consecutive cut in the Masters in April but shot 82 and 77 over the weekend at Augusta National and made early exits from the US PGA Championship and US Open.
The 48-year-old admitted at Pinehurst he remains stuck between practising more to gain competitive sharpness and being concerned about suffering yet another injury which would rule him out of any action.
“It’s pick your poison, right?” Woods said. “Play a lot with the potential of not playing, or not playing and fight being not as sharp.”
A birdie on the sixth gave the large gallery following Woods something to cheer, but further shots were dropped on the ninth, 12th and 14th, the latter following a missed par putt from two-and-a-half feet.
Shane Lowry birdies the 1st to take a share of the lead. pic.twitter.com/gxsjxDoA78
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 19, 2024
At the other end of the leaderboard, 2019 winner Lowry moved into the outright lead thanks to a birdie from nine feet on the first and another from tap-in range on the par-five fourth.
After dropping his first shot of the week on the fifth, Lowry birdied the par-three eighth for the second day running and found himself two shots clear when overnight leader Daniel Brown bogeyed the fourth.
That two-shot lead soon disappeared in bizarre circumstances on the 11th as Lowry pulled his second shot into the gorse, quickly took a penalty drop and hit his fourth on to the green, only for his original ball to be found by a spectator.
That meant it was still in play and, after a long delay while it was determined where he could best take a drop, Lowry hit his approach just short of the green and eventually completed a double-bogey six.
Commentating for Sky Sports, David Howell said the spectator who found the ball was “being a little sheepish” when he realised Lowry did not want that to happen, adding: “He’s feeling awful.”
American Billy Horschel had set the early clubhouse target on two under thanks to a 68 which represented a 17-shot improvement on his second round here in 2016, when he was caught in terrible weather on Friday afternoon.
In the first group out at 6.35am, Germany’s Marcel Siem had threatened to charge through the field as he made five birdies in his first eight holes, but a bogey on the ninth was followed by four more on the back nine.
Siem had to settle for a second round of 71 to remain two over par, although that was comfortably inside the early projected cut mark of four over.
World number two Rory McIlroy had to wait until 3.10pm before he could attempt to rectify the damage of an opening 78 and try to salvage his already-slim hopes of ending a decade-long major drought.
