Open Championship 2022: Tiger Woods’ Claret Jug bid falters as he struggles on Old Course at St Andrews

Tiger Woods’ days at the highest level look to be a thing of the past as he laboured to a round of 78 in the opening 18 holes at the Open Championship.

He arrived at St Andrews, the scene of two of his three Open wins, with questions hanging over his longevity in the game.

With his leg injury clearly a massive cause of concern, Woods was a shadow of his former self on the Old Course on Thursday.

Woods offered promising signs in practice, but it unravelled from the second shot onwards.

He found the middle of the fairway on the opening hole, but was unfortunate to see his ball come to a stop in a divot.

He hit the second extremely fat, and it took one bounce before dropping in the burn. The former world No. 1 failed to get up and down and walked off with a double bogey.

Further bogeys followed on three and four as he struggled with distance control, repeatedly coming up short of the target.

He gave hope to his legion of supporters, and there was no shortage of encouragement on the course, with back-to-back birdies on nine and ten.

At the peak of his powers, Woods was the greatest clutch putter to grace the game. The 12th was an example of how that is no longer the case, as he pulled a six-footer for birdie left off the club face and it did not threaten the hole.

The 13th was brutally tough with the pin placed just behind the bunker guarding the front. Woods was unable to get close with his second and a three-putt bogey saw him drop back to six-over.

Woods hit the longest drive of the day, 412 yards, on 14 and it set up a birdie to get back to five-over.

A bogey on the tough 16th followed, and he trudged up the 18th looking a bit like Thor after his powers had been stripped from him.

The 18th was a gift for the players all day but Woods was unable to find a birdie as finished on six-over, and with lots of work to do on Friday if he is to be around for the weekend.

Woods was world No. 1 for 683 weeks. The man currently in possession of that tag is Scottie Scheffler, and he made an excellent start to his bid with a four-under 68.

US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick was in the group alongside Woods and he struggled to find his best form, but he ground out a round of 72 to keep himself in the tournament.

Padraig Harrington is always to be feared on Links tracks, and he rolled in a birdie on 18 to get to three-under at the age of 50.