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Australian No.1 Adam Scott faces a battle to make the British Open halfway cut after a horror first round at Royal Portrush.
Adam Scott has all but shot himself out of British Open contention after being swept up in the David Duval debacle during a dramatic first round at Royal Portrush.
Desperately hoping to make a run for the Claret Jug in his 20th consecutive Open tilt, Scott instead signed for a demoralising seven-over-par 78.
Scott made a meal of the par-5s and rued twice failing to get out of bunkers in a round featuring two double-bogeys, four bogeys and a solitary birdie.
Scott's front nine ground to a halt at one point as the Australian No.1 had to wait for Duval to complete an utterly disastrous attempt of the seventh hole.
Duval, the 2001 Open champion at Royal Lytham, humiliated himself in chalking up a 13 on the 592-yard par-5 after losing two balls, hitting the wrong one and needing three shots off the tee.
Scott's group, also featuring defending champion Francesco Molinari, temporarily played through as Duval chopped his way up to the green in 12 shots before one-putting for his extraordinary baker's dozen.
Scott, Molinari and American Bryson De Chambeau eventually reached the turn after a painstaking two-and-three-quarter hours.
And Scott had plenty of ground to make up on the leaders after doubling the 574-yard second and also taking bogeys on seven and nine.
He found a fairway bunker on the second, then made the cardinal sin of leaving his next shot in the trap before missing the green with his approach and being unable to get up and down to limit the damage to a bogey.
Scott rebounded brilliantly with a 25-foot birdie putt from off the green on the third, only to hook his drive on the seventh into sandy waste.
The 2013 Masters champion hit a semi-shank from the buried lie in the sand and could only manage to leave his third some 50-metres short of the green.
Another bogey on the 432-yard par-4 ninth, when he cursed himself for missing a short putt, left Scott trailing morning clubhouse leader Shane Lowry by seven strokes heading into his back nine.
But things didn't improve on his homeward nine as Scott again needed two shots to get out of a trap on 17, and recording his second seven of the round.
Scott was the first Australian to hit off on Thursday.
Ccompatriots Jason Day, Marc Leishman, Cameron Smith, Jake McLeod and Dimi Papadatos were all playing in the afternoon.
