Hideki Matsuyama wasted little time following his second-round 73 at the PGA Championship on Friday. He tapped in for bogey on the 9th hole at Quail Hollow Club — his final of the day — and almost immediately headed for the driving range.
The 2021 Masters champion was clearly frustrated. He was also probably still in shock. When’s the last time Matsuyama has missed a major cut, like he did at this week’s PGA Championship? You’d have to go all the way back to 2019, when he missed the weekend at the Open Championship at Royal Portrush. Since then, he made 19 straight major cuts — which included his Masters win — although now he’ll have to begin a new streak.
The PGA cut (top 70 and ties) landed at one over on Friday night, although Matsuyama was far from the only big name to leave Quail Hollow early. In fact, a shocking number of the game’s biggest stars had their weeks cut short.
We’ll even offer one caveat here: the following list of star players to miss the cut is something most golf sites (like us) do at every major tournament, but it’s hard to recall a time it ever reached 15 names strong. But look at the list below! Nine of the top 20 players in the world missed the cut, including six of the top 10 (all Nos. 5-10 in the ranking). Even some accomplished, proven major winners — think Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed and Phil Mickelson — were sent packing.
It’s been a bizarre 36 holes at the PGA Championship. Thirty-six left to go.
Jordan Spieth’s Friday 68 was outstanding. But it still wasn’t enough to erase that opening-round 76 on Thursday, where Spieth made five back-nine bogeys. He still needs a PGA Championship to complete the career Grand Slam. We’ll have to wait another year to dust off that storyline.
Sepp Straka won the Truist Championship last weekend to become just the second player (along with Rory McIlroy) to win two events this season. It bumped him to No. 9 in the World Ranking, and we wondered if his hot play would ride into this week, although now we know the answer. He made bogey on 17 on Friday to push him a shot outside the cut line.
Shane Lowry, the World No. 10, had a rough finish at the Truist last week, and the same thing happened on a stressful Friday for the former major champ. A late bogey on the par-4 16th meant he missed out on the weekend.
Matsuyama struggled tee to green but was solid with the putter this week, although it’s usually the opposite formula we’re used to seeing. He needed to make birdie on his final hole Friday to make the cut, but he missed the fairway and had to waste a shot getting back into play and two-putted for bogey. It’s the first cut he’s missed at a major in six years.
The PGA Championship has not been kind to this budding star. Last year, Ludvig Åberg finished second at the Masters and then missed the cut in his first PGA. This year? He was 7th last month at Augusta National, but again, after a disappointing 75 on Friday, the World No. 6 missed the cut at Quail Hollow.
This one was a head-scratcher. Justin Thomas has won two PGA Championships — his first at this course, back in 2017 — and entered the week with a win (RBC Heritage) and runner-up finish (Truist Championship) in his last two starts. His previous four starts included another runner-up finish. But that fine form didn’t carry over to this week. He was one over with five to play on Friday but made bogeys on 5, 6 and 7. He birdied 8, but the damage was already done.
Michael Block, still basking in PGA spotlight, bows out at Quail Hollow
Patrick Reed, the 2018 Masters champ, is coming off a third-place finish at Augusta National last month, but he shot 72-74 to miss the cut at Quail Hollow, a place where he tied for second when the PGA was last held here in 2017. It’s his first missed cut in his last 12 major starts.
Patrick Cantlay, while majorless, is another guy who rarely misses major weekends. But he shot 74-74, missing the cut for just the first time in his last 12 majors. He made just three birdies in 36 holes.
Jason Day, who sits at No. 32 in the World, tied for eighth at the Masters but shot 41 on the back nine at Quail Hollow on Friday to seal his fate at this PGA Championship.
What’s up with Cameron Smith? It’s a fair question following his third straight missed cut at a major. In fact, he hasn’t finished in the top 30 in his last five major starts.
Brooks Koepka has won this tournament three times and never missed a cut in his 12 starts, but that streak came to an end this week. He shot 75 on Thursday, and any chance of a Friday-evening charge toward the weekend was quickly negated with a bogey-bogey-double bogey start. He made every major cut the past two years but has now missed the weekend in both the Masters and the PGA in 2025.
He hasn’t won one, but Justin Rose has absolutely owned the PGA Championships the last handful of years. In the five-year span from 2020 to 2024, he had four top 10s and his only outlier was a T13. He even finished second at the Masters last month. Although you might have to question his health this week after he withdrew from last week’s Truist due to an illness.
The PGA’s 2021 champion laid a dud on Thursday, but he was cooking on Friday and making a surprising charge toward the cut line — and then he hit into the green-side bunker on the par-4 12th, needed four swings to get out and made a quadruple bogey. He rebounded with two birdies after (and made seven on the day), but it wasn’t enough.
He won the Arnold Palmer Invitational earlier this year and has vaulted to eighth in the World Ranking, but a 77-75 week (which included a double bogey each day) sent Russell Henley home.
Dustin Johnson, the two-time major winner, had a week to forget in Charlotte. While he hasn’t contended in a major in a couple of years — his last top 10 was the 2023 U.S. Open — it’s still surprising to see one of golf’s biggest names so far down on the wrong side of the leaderboard. He shot 78-76 and missed a major cut for the fifth time in his last seven tries.
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