Updates: Tiger Woods, The Open Championship, Round 2

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland – Small steps. These are the things that must take place as Tiger Woods climbs his way back into winning form.

Like shooting consecutive par-or-better rounds to start a major – which he accomplished with back-to-back even-par 71s this week at The Open Championship. It’s the first time he’s done that in any major since the 2013 Open.

Like making the cut. Coming into this week, Woods had missed the cut in five of his previous seven majors, including last month’s U.S. Open. At even par through two rounds, he was safely inside the cut line, which was projected at 2 over when he walked off the course Friday.

Like getting into contention. Tiger was six shots off the pace when he finished his round, although he suspected that deficit would grow with an afternoon wave of players who had the benefit of soft, moist conditions without having to battle the rain that drenched players who had earlier tee times.

Still, he’ll have a chance. “It will be a pretty packed leaderboard,” Woods said, “and I'm certainly right there in it.”

Woods battled hard to stay in it after a poor start. On the par-4 second, his tee shot sailed right, and he tried to clear a path for his second shot. “I moved them back about 40 yards,” he said. It didn’t matter. The grass smothered his shaft and his shot ended up going into the gallery. He hit a wedge onto the green and two-putted for bogey.

“I was very, very fortunate that It got far enough down there where I had a full wedge into the green,” Woods said.

He followed with another bogey on the third, this time with a three-putt, but responded with consecutive birdies from mid-range distance. Overall, though, it was a rollercoaster performance … and a slight step back from Thursday’s 71.

“I played a little bit better yesterday,” Woods said. “Today wasn’t quite as good, but I finally birdied a par 5, so that’s a positive.”

That birdie was his last one of the day, at the 513-yard 14th after a terrific second shot with his 5-iron from 235 yards trickled onto the green. He had failed to birdie Carnoustie’s two par 5s on Thursday, but his score at the 14th could’ve been even better had he converted the 25-foot eagle putt.

So while his scores haven’t been spectacular, Woods at least has something to build on. Perhaps those small steps will become a little bigger this weekend. – Mike McAllister