THE OPEN RELATED STORIES The Open Home Page The Open Scores Round 4: Tiger Woods seals two shot victory Round 4: Emotional Tiger Woods thanks late father Round 4: Players give Hoylake top marks Round 4: Ernie Els continues impressive Open run Round 4: Marius Thorp wins Silver Medal Round 4: Sergio Garcia takes positives from Open Round 4: Chris DiMarco consoled by second place Round 4: Tiger Woods edges ahead of field Round 3: Sergio Garcia in sight of first major title Round 3: Ernie Els happy to still be in the mix Round 3: Putting problems keep Woods back Round 3: Chris DiMarco counts on experience Round 2: Woods and Els set for showdown Round 2: Singh & Monty amongst cut casualties Round 2: Ernie Els relishes being in contention Round 2: David Duval frustrated again Round 2: Phil Mickelson well off the pace Round 2: Poor showing by Ryder Cup hopefuls Round 1: Woods makes move with eagle on 18th Round 1: Clarke to take break to care for wife Round 1: Seve Ballesteros happy with opening 74 Round 1: Ernie Els finds putting touch again Round 1: Garcia amongst early front runners Leading contenders for the British Open Tiger Woods ready for Open defence Geoff Ogilvy enjoying life as a champion Weather set fair at Hoylake Phil Mickelson in confident mood Tiger Woods & Nick Faldo fued simmers Trevor Immelman pulls out of Open Players expecting to score low at Hoylake Ben Curtis has sights on second Open title Montgomerie still optimistic about breaking duck Rest of the World catching the Americans Hoylake ready for a new chapter Europeans seeking a Major turnaround Trevor Immelman celebrates birth of first child Tiger Woods is bookmakers favourite Hot, dry and fast Hoylake awaits players Nick Faldo & Tiger Woods row diffused Hoylake a mystery to the whole field John Daly plays "The Cavern" Retief Goosen not confident heading into Open John Senden joins record number of Australians Woods starts Open defence with Faldo The Open Preview Course Guide: Hoylake - Royal Liverpool 2006 European Tour Schedule GOLF TODAY TOP STORIES Colin Montgomerie plays down Ryder Cup talk Top players absent from Tigers' event Opportunities abound without Tiger playing Olazabal & Clarke miss out on Open Kenny Perry moves back in to World Top 20 Tiger Woods unsure of when he'll return GREAT GIFTS FOR GOLFERS Golf Breaks to Portugal & Ireland Half Price Golf Vouchers InstructaCard - your portable pro! The Father & Son Golf Ch'ship Golf Insurance

Singh & Montgomerie amongst those missing the cut

World number three Vijay Singh, and eight-times European number one Colin Montgomerie were the highest profile players to miss the cut in the British Open.

Singh, the 1998 US PGA Champion and 2000 Masters winner, had two double-bogeys in his round of 76 which left him on two-over-par 146, three shots worse than the cut, which, at one-under, equalled the record low for any major. The 1990 British Open cut was also one-under.

It was only the third time in 18 British Open starts that the Fijian, joint runner-up in the major in 2003, has missed the weekend.

After finishing tied second in the US Open last month, Montgomerie, still without a major title, disappointed his myriad fans at Hoylake with a second round 75 to total 148.

The 43-year-old Scot had been expected to follow up on his second place last year in the British Open at St Andrews behind Tiger Woods but put himself immediately on the back foot by three-putting the first on Friday.

After recovering with two birdies, Montgomerie crashed out of the tournament by dropping five shots in four holes coming home, including a double-bogey on 15.

U.S. Ryder Cup captain Tom Lehman missed the weekend and his team standings may be affected, with top 10 players JJ Henry, Zach Johnson, Brett Wetterich and Lucas Glover also out.

Former major winners Rich Beem, John Daly, Fred Couples, Shaun Micheel, Ben Curtis, Steve Elkington, Paul Lawrie and Bernhard Langer failed to make it.

Daly, 1995 British Open champion, looked comfortably in but triple-bogeyed the 18th to slump to 145.

Seve Ballesteros's British Open comeback after a five-year absence, also ended in failure, as the bookmakers predicted. Ballesteros had missed the cut on six successive appearances, too, before his last British Open in 2001.

Paul McGinley, Darren Clarke and Padraig Harrington missed out, as did Europe's money-list leader David Howell. McGinley's eighth place standing on Europe's Ryder Cup table could come under threat.

Briton Ian Poulter wasted money by missing the weekend. The flamboyant dresser -- looking like a cross between Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash in the second round in heavily sequined all-black -- had bought four expensive hand-made garbs for the tournament and only used two.