Tiger Woods sets second round target as he refuses to give on Open hopes in St Andrews

Tiger Woods says he will need to pull out all the stops if he is to harbour any hopes of remaining in The Open come the weekend.

The 15-time major champion endured a frustrating six hours of play on the first day of the 150th staging of the championship and carded a six-over par 78 that included five bogeys and two double-bogeys.

It is his worst score at the Old Course as a professional and left him 14 shots behind first-round leader Cameron Young and just five off Mark Calcavecchia at the foot of the leaderboard.

Admitting he struggled on the greens and bemoaning some back luck he has not ruled out all hope of making a comeback.

“It looks like I'm going to have to shoot 66 tomorrow to have a chance. So obviously it has been done. Guys did it today. And that's my responsibility tomorrow is to go ahead and do it. I need to do it.”

Woods, who was followed by large crowds, said he had battled the conditions all round, as he tried to adapt to lightning fast fairways and deceptively slow greens that contributed to his issues with the putter.

“I think I had maybe four or five 3-putts today. I just wasn't very good on the greens. And every putt I left short. I struggled with hitting the putts hard enough. They looked faster than what they were putting, and I struggled with it.

“But it feels like I didn't really hit it that bad. Yes, I did have bad speed on the greens, yes. But I didn't really feel like I hit it that bad but I ended up in bad spots. Or just had some weird things happen. And just the way it goes. Links is like that. And this golf course is like that. And as I said, I had my chances to turn it around and get it rolling the right way and I didn't do it.”

Tiger Woods struggled his way to a six over par first round in the 150th Open at the Old Course, St Andrews. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

He was not the only big name to struggle, while defending champion Collin Morikawa is stuck in a pack of players on level par, along with other former Open winners such as Phil Mickelson, Zach Johnson and Shane Lowry, Darren Clarke was seven-over, and Henrik Stenson joined European Ryder Cup team-mate Sergio Garcia on three-over.