Tiger Woods concedes he needs a combination of a hot round and brutal weather conditions to rescue his British Open after a dismal start at St Andrews.
The 14-time major champion and three-time British Open champion shot a nightmare four-over-par 76 to open his account at the Old Course, leaving him a distant 11 shots off the early pace and languishing near the bottom of the leaderboard.
Woods conceded his only chance of avoiding just the second missed cut in a decorated 19-start British Open career would come via Mother Nature.
The forecast is for rain and heavier winds on Friday.
"I've got to just fight, fight through it," he said.
"Hopefully the conditions will be tough tomorrow and I can put together a good round and we'll move up the board progressively.
"I'm so far back and the leaderboard is so bunched that in order for me to get in there by Sunday, I'm going to have to have the conditions tough and then obviously put together some really solid rounds.
"If you shoot some good, solid rounds in tough conditions like that, players can move up the board, and hopefully I'm one of them."
It took just two holes to know Woods was in trouble as he struggled in prime scoring conditions.
A winner at the historic venue in 2000 and 2005, Woods posted his worst score at a British Open at St Andrews since a 78 in the final round in 1995 when he was a 19-year-old amateur, and by far his worst as a professional having never carded worse than a 73 before.
It went wrong from the outset.
After punching an iron down the famous first fairway, Woods then dumped his approach into the burn short of the green for his first major mistake, forcing a penalty drop and an opening bogey.
The legend of the game was consistently short of the greens on approach and paid the price with four more bogeys and just a lone birdie.
"I know that today is a very benign day. Guys have been shooting good numbers. Unfortunately I did not do that," Woods said.
"Discouraging? Yeah, it was a little. Angered? A little bit.
"I hit it really good coming home and I made some good clutch putts. I just needed to put those balls in position for birdies instead of for pars."
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