Justin Thomas has made a name for himself for being a PGA Championship specialist. But the two-time winner of this tourney is one of many big names who’ll be at home watching current leader Jhonattan Vegas try to capture his first major this weekend.
Thomas’ four birdies and four bogeys going into 18 would have been enough to keep him around another couple days, but a crushing bogey on the final hole made sure he’d be going home early for only the second time in 10 attempts at the PGA Championship.
A litany of other stars also had bad weeks at the office in Charlotte, with an endless list of major champions having a tough time with a muddy Quail Hollow track that endured up to five inches of rain in the days prior to first tee.
So, here are the biggest names to miss the cut alongside Thomas.
Biggest Names to Miss PGA Championship Cut
Jordan Spieth
Unlike the Masters, there will be no career grand slam won this week for Spieth.
Spieth is this week’s tough-luck elimination, finishing one shot off the cut in his efforts to match Rory McIlroy’s efforts at Augusta. The cut moved from +1 to +2 a couple times during Friday’s round, but ultimately landed on +1, bouncing Spieth, Shane Lowry, Sepp Straka, former PGA champion Padraig Harringon and six others at the death.
A tough way to go, but the way he was playing, it certainly didn’t seem like Jordan was going to be contending for the title this week.
Ludvig Aberg
Aberg came into the week as one of the favorites to win his first major, but honestly we all should have seen this coming.
The Swede was coming off back-to-back ugly efforts his last two tournaments, with a tie for 60th last week and a 54th at Hilton Head. And before his seventh place finish at the Masters, he’d missed two straight cuts in Dallas and at The Players. So that made his double-double close on 17 and 18 all the more understandable. But it was still crushing to watch in real time.
Brooks Koepka
The five-time major champ had a brutal trip to North Carolina this week.
Koepka started Thursday’s round by going double-bogey-bogey to put himself in a hole before he even knew what was happening. And it never got any better, finishing 76-75, which tied him with 54-year-old Phil Mickelson and one shot worse than 56-year-old Shaun Micheel.
He’s now missed the cut at both majors this season, having also been eliminated early from the Masters back in April.
Phil Mickelson
Speaking of Lefty, the oldest man to ever win a major when he lifted the Wanamaker back in 2021 at the age of 50, he will not be winning another one this week.
Mickelson was actually three-under on Friday’s round through 11 holes, then disaster struck when a snowman on 12 put any hope of the back nine run to an end. Mickelson’s now missed the cut in six of the last nine majors, with his best finished during that time being a tie for 43rd in the 2024 Masters.
Justin Rose
Rose was a playoff loss to Rory McIlroy away from winning the Masters just one month ago.
Alas, he was not on his game this week at the PGA Championship. And that’s not like him at this tournament, either. He’d finished in the Top 13 in each of his last five trips to the PGA, with seven Top 10s overall.
That’s not a good omen for his chances at the upcoming US Open, where he’s missed the cut six of the last nine times.
Dustin Johnson
It would be hard to find anyone playing worse than Dustin Johnson right now. His four double bogeys against just three birdies this week are the least of his problems. He’s now missed the cut at five of his last seven majors and hasn’t finished better than 43rd at the PGA since back-to-back seconds in 2019 and 2020.
After coming in 143rd place this week, down where the club pros typically end up during this tournament, it’s not a stretch to wonder whether his days of competing at the highest level are behind him.
Russell Henley
Currently ranked eighth in the latest Official World Golf Rankings, Henley has seemingly fallen off a cliff over the past month. He started the season with five Top 10s in his first eight tourneys, including a win at Bay Hill.
But when the lights have been the brightest, he’s played his worst, missing the cut at both the Masters and now the PGA Championship. Prior to that, he was fifth at The Open and seventh at the US Open, so predicting where he’ll place in any upcoming major is anyone’s guess.
But this performance will surely hurt his chance of earning an auto-bid into the 2025 Ryder Cup.
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