Tiger Woods Lurking in Contention After Solid Round 2 at 2018 British Open

Tiger Woods shook off a rough start to the second round of The Open Championship on Friday to shoot an even-par 71 at Carnoustie Golf Links in Scotland.

The 42-year-old American started the day in a tie for 32nd place after shooting a 71 in the first round as well. He appeared to be headed for trouble early on in Day 2, but he found a way to quickly turned things around to save his tournament. 

Woods used the front nine to his advantage on Thursday, shooting a two-under 34. The second round was a different story, however. He had a tough go of things out of the gate, posting back-to-back bogeys on the second and third holes.

That had him flirting with the cut line early on, but he did manage to get back on track.

A pair of birdies on the next two holes got him back to par for the tournament:

At that point, he seemed to settle down, but he closed the front nine with a bogey. That meant he had some work to do on the back nine, where he shot two-over on Day 1.

Woods made the perfect start, though, and drew back to even on No. 11 with his second consecutive birdie on the hole:

He would grab his fourth birdie in 11 holes on the 14th, although he was just a few feet from really giving his score a nice boost:

Woods lost some of his momentum when he was unable to save par with a long putt on 16. He was able to limit the damage, though, as he tapped in the ensuing short putt for his first bogey on the back nine.

He had a chance to make up for it on 18, but he just missed a birdie putt and had to settle for par.

When he finished the round, the projected cut line was at two-over. Woods was able to give himself some breathing room heading into the clubhouse and found himself six shots back of the current leader. 

Per ESPN Stats and Info, this was an encouraging start to the weekend for the 14-time major champ:

Woods will undoubtedly be frustrated by missed opportunities over the final few holes. On the other hand, he made a nice recovery after struggling early on Friday.

It wasn't the smoothest of rounds for Woods, but he managed to battle back in order to keep his hopes of a fourth Open championship alive. While he has plenty of work to do in order to put himself in serious contention, he still has 36 holes to work with.