Tiger Woods rued the errors which saw him miss the cut at the Open for the first time at Turnberry.
Tiger Woods rued the errors which saw him miss the cut at the Open for the first time at Turnberry.
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The world number one crashed to a second-round 74 for a five-over-par total of 145, missing the cut by one despite birdies at the 16th and 17th.
Not since 2004 has Woods has gone through a season without a major, but he knows he will have to play better than he did in Scotland as he said: "I just made mistakes. Obviously you can't make mistakes and expect to not only make the cut, but also try and win a championship. You have to play clean rounds of golf and I didn't."
Asked if it was the worst he could remember playing, Woods quickly retorted: "It was pretty bad at Winged Foot."
That was his one previous major missed cut and in that he had two rounds of 76 for a 12-over-par total that was three strokes too many to survive.
This time he shot 71-74 to miss out by one on five over.
The stretch that cost him came around the turn - tough holes at any time, but in wind and rain all the more demanding. Woods, one under for the day after a superb pitch set up a birdie on the long seventh, bogeyed the next two and then lost his ball off a wild drive down the 456-yard 10th.
That led to a double-bogey six, he dropped another shot two holes later and then had another double on the 13th.
"I was probably going to have to birdie the last four - that's what I thought," he added, although in that he was wrong. Three would have done it.
"The wind was blowing pretty good and you just had to hit good shots. But I was struggling there for a little bit - I hit two bad three woods in a row."