Woods and Scott in danger of missing cut

The world’s top two players, Tiger Woods and Adam Scott, faced a battle to avoid the halfway cut at the WGC-Cadillac Championship after losing ground before completing rain-delayed first rounds on Friday. While Patrick Reed climbed a stroke clear of the field on four under, after completing a 68, his higher-profile rivals stuttered badly after resuming on the 11th.

Woods might have been happy to hear the horn sound to end play prematurely last night, after slipping to two over, but four dropped shots in his first four holes on Friday left him 62nd in a field of 68. After bogeys at 11 and 13, the world number one then carded a double bogey at the par-four 14th to be six over.

Woods battled back with a hat-trick of birdies, before again dropping a shot on the last to finish four over.

Playing alongside him Scott, who resumed a shot off the lead on two under, initially fared even worse as he dropped six strokes in his first five holes, including double bogeys at 11 and 14. The Australian, who can surpass Woods at the top of the rankings for the first time this weekend, regained ground at 16 and 17 before also finishing with bogey to be three over.

Reed will begin Friday afternoon's second round a stroke ahead of a group of six players on three under, including Jason Dufner, Zach Johnson and Hunter Mahan. Two-time PGA Tour winner Reed, who won at the Humana Challenge in January, took over at the top of the leaderboard with the seventh birdie of his round, at his penultimate hole, the par-five eighth.

Rory McIlroy shot a two under par, 70 after completing his first round but his round finished with a bogey at the last. The 24-year-old managed to get 14 holes played yesterday in a weather interrupted day and on the resumption early this morning in Florida fired his tee shot at the par three, sixth, his 15th hole, to eight feet.

He holed the birdie putt, and recorded another on the par five, eighth, to move to three under and a share of the lead but a closing bogey four, on the par three ninth proved an annoying way to finish.