Tiger Woods bemoans poor start at The Open Championship

Woods began Friday's play with a double bogey and went on to drop three shots at the par-four 17th to card 77 and leave him two over, just making the cut.

Rory McIlroy leads the way, a whopping 14 shots ahead of Woods at 12 under, and the American requires a minor miracle to repeat his 2006 triumph on the same course.

"It was not a very good round. I got off to a terrible start again," he said. "I had some opportunities to get back to even par for the day but I just never did, I never made anything.

"I had myself in good positions to make birdies and I didn't do it.

"I didn't hit the driver very good today. I was trying to be bolder, more aggressive. With the wind the way it was I could take some of the bunkers out of play, get it down there where I could hit sand wedge into the greens even from the rough.

"I figured today was a chance where I could go out and be aggressive but I just didn't drive the ball."

Though Woods retains faint hopes of launching a stunning comeback, he was quick to praise McIlroy after the Northern Irishman shook off recent Friday woes to card a second-successive 66.

"It is not a surprise what Rory is doing," Woods added.

"He's won both of his majors by eight shots so when he gets going he can make a lot of birdies."

Another in the field with work to do is world number three and many pundits' pre-tournament favourite Justin Rose.

The Englishman sits in a group of five players tied for 19th on two under, and is hopeful of improving over a weekend expected to be disrupted by stormy weather set to hit the United Kingdom.

"Hopefully now I've ridden out the tough times and I can go on a run this weekend," Rose told BBC Sport.

"I've been playing well this week, well enough to feel I can go on and have a good weekend.

"I've got a lot of work ahead of me but it's nice to be through two rounds. We've had the harder end of the draw and I've kept myself in touch."