Marcus Fraser suffered a “kick in the guts” as a late collapse left him in serious danger of missing the British Open cut.

Fraser looked to be coasting towards a weekend appearance at Muirfield after getting to three under for the day, and one under overall, midway through his second round on Friday morning.

But he dropped six shots in the final six holes to card a disappointing 74 and leave him facing a nervous wait at five-over par.

Most frustrating to the Victorian was feeling he actually hadn’t played too badly on the home stretch.

He admitted a “few bad swings” were to blame but also felt he couldn’t catch a break.

“It feels like every time I’m in one of those (sand) traps I’m underneath the lip,” Fraser said.

“I just got completely shafted a couple of times.

“It’s a kick in the guts really.

“I felt like I played as good a golf as I’ve played for long time the last two days and to finish like that was pretty frustrating.”

It continued months of frustration for the 34-year-old, who is ranked 84th in the world after some good results in Europe and Asia in recent years.

He came into the event having missed the cut at his last five tournaments but he’s hopeful of sneaking into the weekend play to allow him to build some much-needed momentum.

“I wouldn’t be surprised after the last couple of months if (the score) it misses out. We’ll wait and see,” Fraser said.

“Hopefully it sneaks through. It’d be a nice to play a weekend, I haven’t played one for a couple of months.”