Tiger Woods wants to 'keep progressing' after missing cut at The Open

Shane Lowry surges into lead at Royal Troon on Friday

Tiger Woods missed the cut at The Open on Friday. Reuters

Tiger Woods said retirement is not on his mind after missing the cut with his worst ever performance at The Open on Friday.

Woods, who is still struggling with fitness issues after almost losing his right leg in a car crash in 2021, added a 77 to his first-round 79 at Troon and the 36-hole sum of 156 equalled what he shot in the 2015 US Open.

At 14-over he was close to being dead-last but insists he still enjoyed the experience and failure to produce any kind of performance had not influenced his decision to keep coming back.

"It wasn't very good. I made a stumble at two when I needed to go the other way and I was just fighting it pretty much all day," Woods said after his third successive missed cut at The Open.

"I never hit it close enough to make birdies and made a lot of bogeys.

"I loved it. I always loved playing major championships, I just wish I was more physically sharp coming into the majors.

"It tests you mentally, physically and emotionally and I wasn't as sharp as I needed to be. I was hoping I'd find it somehow but I never did. Consequently my scores were pretty high."

Woods has now failed to complete four rounds in six of his eight majors since suffering severe leg injuries in a car crash in 2021.

His only appearance outside the four majors this year came at the Genesis Invitational in February, when he was forced to withdraw after just six holes of his second round.

The 48-year-old, though, insisted he is improving physically and will see results in his game should that continue.

"I'd like to have played more, but I just wanted to make sure that I was able to play the major championships this year," Woods added.

"I've gotten better, even though my results really haven't shown it, but physically I've gotten better, which is great.

"I just need to keep progressing like that and then eventually start playing more competitively and start getting into kind of the competitive flow again."

Woods will look to step up his schedule next year but for this season he has only two events lined up - the Hero World Challenge, which he hosts for his own foundation, and the PNC Championship in which he plays alongside son Charlie.

"No, I'm not going to play until then. I'm going to just keep getting physically better and keep working on it," he said.

"Hopefully just come back for our, what is it, our 'fifth major', the father/son, so looking forward to it.

"I'd have liked to have played more but I wanted to make sure I played the major championships this year."

Meanwhile, Shane Lowry moved into the lead at seven under par.

Lowry had been usurped at the top of the leaderboard late on Thursday by unheralded Englishman Daniel Brown, who posted a six under 65.

However, the Irishman, who won his sole major at the British Open in 2019, recovered from a dramatic double bogey on the 11th that threatened to derail his charge to post a two under par round of 69.

Lowry leads by two shots from Brown, who showed little sign of nerves under the spotlight in his first major, with a steady 72 to sit at five under.

"To be honest, I was happy enough leaving there with a six. It wasn't a disaster," said Lowry on his travails at 11.

"To be leading this tournament after two days, it's why you come here."