Woods is in danger of missing the cut

Tiger Woods was today flirting with the threat of missing his first halfway cut in 103 professional golf tournaments in the TPC of Europe here.

Although conditions were calm, the world No 1 dropped shots at his first and third holes of the second round to slump to just one under par for the tournament.

That left the 27-year-old American a massive nine shots behind clubhouse leader Retief Goosen, who improved from seven under par overnight to 10 under with a card of 69 showing six birdies.

It would be a sensation if Woods suffered an early exit.

Tournament sponsors Deutsche Bank and SAP are reported to have paid him a bonus incentive of £1.5 million to fly the Atlantic and attempt to win this event for a third successive time.

Everything has been done to make his stay comfortable, including the provision of a bright orange Lamborghini sports car in case he wants to go racing on the local autobahns.

But with scores tumbling all over this featureless parkland course, one under par won't be enough to save Woods from the embarrassment of missing only the second cut of his career - his first was at the 1997 Canadian Open.

Woods had seemed poised to mount a charge after returning a three-under-par 69 yesterday. But his difficulties today were put in perspective by the British pairing of Paul Casey and Nick Faldo who are certain of playing on into the weekend on eight under and seven under par respectively.