Tiger Woods begged to retire after 'embarrassing' Open Championship first round score

But he's once again been restricted due to the limitations of his body with The Open being his fourth event of the year.

Woods impressively made the cut at The Masters, but then that was followed by a disastrous 10-over 82 on the Saturday for the worst round in his career at a major tournament.

That was followed by a round of five-over-par on the Sunday for his highest 72-hole score in the entirety of his professional career.

Woods failed to make the cut at the PGA Championship and US Open, but defiant earlier this week when he once again claimed he felt able to "win the event".

The 15-time major champion backed up his words in the first few holes and moved to one-under par after a birdie on the third.

However, it was downhill from there as he reached the turn at four-over par before a double bogey on the 11th completely wrecked his round.

He stopped the rot with a birdie on the 13th, but he ended with back-to-back bogeys to finish with a round of 79.

Only 12 players shot worse rounds than Woods, although Rickie Fower, Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith and Rory McIlroy also struggled around the Royal Troon course.

Woods now faces a tall order to make the cut this weekend and golf fans feel it's now time the American sports icon should retire.

One viewer posted: "I hate seeing greats going on well past their sell by dates and embarrassing themselves. Retire Tiger."

Another pleaded: "It’s probably time for Tiger to retire and or join the Senior Tour. No disrespect but he hasn’t had a good four rounds at a major in a while."

A third begged: "Please, please retire Tiger … it is sad to see you struggling. We all want to remember the great player, not the one that no longer has the magic."

One other person simply said: "Tiger Woods should retire."

Another posted: "Time to withdraw tiger and retire."

Nick Faldo also questioned whether Woods was able to enjoy his golf when he's posting so many bogeys.

He said: "If he is enjoying himself, then fine - it's his world and his right to do whatever he wants to do.

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"But he's 48 now, his body is shattered and he has played since the age of three... there is no way, at the end of the day, he goes, 'oh, that was fun, I enjoyed that, what a great experience'.

"He goes to physio before the round, I bet he's got another hour and a half after it - it's got to hurt.

"And we've been seeing it for a couple of years now."