BEN Stow will go into Friday's second round at the 142nd Open Championship believing he still has a fighting chance of making the cut.

The 21 year old amateur, from East Knoyle near Warminster, shot an opening-round five-over-par 76 at Muirfield on Thursday after teeing off in the second group out at the Scottish links.

Stow briefly moved towards the top of the leaderboard with a birdie on the short third hole, but his round was largely shaped by the dropping of four shots in three holes before the turn, including a double-bogey seven on the long par five ninth.

Three more shots went on the back nine, although the Wiltshire county player did birdie the long 17th and his own round was put in context by the struggles of the players teeing off later in the day.

The cut mark at the end of the first round was at three over, just two shots better than Stow's current position and Stow reckons his chances of appearing in the final two rounds of the weekend remain very much intact.

"I played okay, but I kind of had the worst score I could have had from the way I played,' he told the Wiltshire Times.

"It's a little frustrating because I played three holes in four over par. If I had played them in level par then I would have had a very respectable round of one over. But there was some good golf.''

The Rushmore Golf Club youngster added: "I'm not too discouraged because the cut was at three over today. If I can shoot a level par round, or even better, on Friday then I think I've got a really good chance of staying in the tournament.''

Stow's playing partner Todd Hamilton, the 2004 Open champion, shot a two-under-par 69 to lie just three shots off the overnight leader Zach Johnson, of the United States.

NEWS OF STOW'S SECOND ROUND TOMORROW ON TWITTER @WTSport AND AT WILTSHIRETIMES.CO.UK/SPORT