TROON, Scotland — Tiger Woods appears well on his way to missing his third consecutive cut in a major championship.
Woods, 48, struggled through an 8-over-par 79 in Thursday’s British Open first round at Royal Troon, the site of his first Open as a professional in 1997.
Woods, who’s played in only five PGA Tour events this year, is seemingly finished with tournament play after this week until December, when he’s expected to play the Hero World Challenge, which he hosts in the Bahamas.
He withdrew from the Genesis Invitational in February with an illness during his second round.
He finished last among the 60 players who made the cut at the Masters.
And he missed the cut in the PGA Championship at the U.S. Open.
And now, it’ll take a very low round in Friday’s second round to keep Woods in Scotland this weekend.
Woods got off a solid start with a birdie on No. 3 to get to 1-under par. Then things went bad en route to shooting 40 on the front nine. He had a bogey on No. 4, a double bogey on No. 5 and bogeys on Nos. 7 and 8.
Then Woods pumped his tee shot into the railroad tracks, out of bounds, off the tee on No. 11 and took double bogey, which was followed by another bogey on 12 to fall to 7-over.
He birdied 13 to climb back to 6-over, but closed with bogeys on the 17th and 18th, where he shoved a seven-foot par putt to the right of the cup.
“I didn’t do a whole lot of things right today,’’ Woods said after his round. “I made that (birdie) putt on the third hole, and then I think I had three 3-putts today. I didn’t hit my irons very close, and I didn’t give myself a whole lot of looks.
“I need to shoot something in the mid-60s tomorrow to get something going on the weekend.’’
Asked if he’d in a position where he can play more golf so he’s sharper in the few tournaments he does play, Woods said, “Yeah, I’m physically feeling a lot better than I did at the beginning of the year. At the end of last year, it was tough, and I haven’t played a whole lot.
“As the year has gone on, I have gotten better. I just wish I could have played a little bit more, but I’ve been saving it for the majors just in case I do something pretty major and then take myself out of it. Hopefully, next year will be a little bit better than this year.’’
Meanwhile, during Woods’ round, Sky Sports commentator Mark Roe delivered a startling accusation on air when he speculated that Woods is using “quite a lot of painkillers.”
“You look at the eyes, you gotta think that there’s quite a lot of painkillers being taken to cope with the pain, ya know,” Roe said as part of the featured holes commentary.
The accusation carries some significance considering Woods’ history with painkillers, with the golfer having painkillers Hydrocodone and Hydromorphone in his system when police arrested him in May of 2017 on a DUI charge after finding him asleep at the steering wheel.
Woods, too, entered a rehab facility that year for an addiction to prescription pills.