What is the cut at The British Open Championship?

Tiger Woods arrived at Royal Troon with optimism, saying he’s been able to ramp up his workouts as his body continues to improve.

Unfortunately, his scores haven’t followed suit. He’s still limited in his ability to practice, play and prepare for his rare tournament starts, and it has shown in his results.

The Open was a struggle for Woods, just as the year’s other three majors were. Woods will miss the cut at Royal Troon after shooting 14-over 156 (79-77), his highest opening two rounds at a major since the 2015 U.S. Open.

The Open cuts the field to the low 70 players and ties after the first two rounds. Joining Woods outside the cut line are players like Henrik Stenson (77-73), Nick Taylor (75-75), Min Woo Lee (71-80), Francesco Molinari (73-78), Tommy Fleetwood (76-75), Ludvig Aberg (75-76), Bryson DeChambeau (76-75), Tony Finau (71-81), Viktor Hovland (75-77), Tom Kim (76-77), Cameron Smith (80-74), Sahith Theegala (77-79) and Wyndham Clark (78-80). Many of these players competed Friday afternoon, when some of the pre-tournament favorites seemed to struggle the most.

"It was tough. Yeah, look, conditions are tough, the golf course is tough," said Fleetwood. "But it's your job to figure it out and to put in a score, and I just couldn't do that."

With his week at Royal Troon coming to an end, this also marks the conclusion of Woods’ competitive calendar for 2024 (at least in official events). He was a combined 44-over par in the year’s four majors, finishing last among players who made the cut at the Masters and missing the cut at the other three. His scoring average in those four events was 75.6 strokes.

“I just wish I was more physically sharp coming into the majors,” Woods said. “It tests you mentally, physically, emotionally and I just wasn’t as sharp as I needed to be. I was hoping I would find it somehow. I just never did, and consequently my results and scores were pretty high.”

The only other event he played in 2024 was The Genesis Invitational, which he hosts at Los Angeles’ Riviera Country Club. He shot 72 in the opening round before withdrawing from the second round with the flu.

“Hopefully next year will be a little bit better than this year,” said Woods.

While his son Charlie begins play Monday in the U.S. Junior Amateur at Michigan’s Oakland Hills Country Club, Tiger won’t be seen playing publicly until the Hero World Challenge and PNC Championship at the end of the year.

“I’m not going to play until (the Hero),” Woods said. “I’m just going to keep getting physically better and keep working on it.”

Clark’s struggles in this year’s majors continued at Royal Troon, where he shot 16-over 158 (78-80). The 2023 U.S. Open champion was 39-over par in the 2024 majors, missing the cut at the Masters (151, 7-over) and PGA Championship (146, 4-over) and finishing T56 in his U.S. Open defense (292, 12-over).