Strong winds and early exits: Star golfers struggle in brutal round two at The Open

Tiger Woods equalled his worst number of shots for two rounds in a major after adding a 77 to his opening 79, the total of 156 matching his effort in the 2015 US Open at Chambers Bay.

And the 15-time major winner was far from alone in struggling to cope with the conditions, with Rory McIlroy finishing 11 over — his second-worst score at an Open — after following an opening 78 with a 75.

The 2023 US Open champion Wyndham Clark shot 80 to post 16 over with his successor Bryson DeChambeau also departing early as his 75 left him nine over.

McIlroy had faced an uphill task to make the cut and the world number two's faint hopes disappeared as he covered the first five holes in five over par.

Following a dropped a shot on the third, McIlroy ran up a triple-bogey eight on the fourth after failing to advance his ball more than a few yards from heavy rough, missing the green with his fourth and then chipping into a greenside bunker.

"I think once I made the eight on the fourth hole, that was it. Twenty-two holes into the event and I'm thinking about where I'm going to go on vacation next week," said the Northern Irishman.

McIlroy's Ryder Cup team-mates Ludvig Aberg, an Open debutant, and world number seven Viktor Hovland also missed the cut on nine over and 10 over respectively after rounds of 76 and 77.

Scottish Open champion Robert MacIntyre and two-time major winner Justin Thomas were among a handful of players who recovered from bad starts to salvage their tournaments.

MacIntyre needed two attempts to escape a greenside bunker on the first on his way to a triple bogey and, after dropping shots on the second and third, made another triple bogey on the par-five fourth.

The Scot turned in 43 but then covered the back nine in 32 to make the cut on five over.

Thomas, who was third overnight after an opening 68, limped to the turn in 45 with a triple bogey, double bogey and four bogeys on his card but then bounced back with homeward nine of 33 to get to four over.

Only nine of the world's top 20 players made the weekend with England's Tommy Fleetwood another casualty.

Starting the day five over he never recovered from an outward nine of 38 and a 75 saw him depart on nine over.

The worst score of the day belonged to Japan's Aguri Iwasaki, his 20-over-par 91 including consecutive nines — on the par-four 13th and par-three 14th — and a triple-bogey seven on the 18th.