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Players Championship 2026: Who missed the cut and who’s playing TPC Sawgrass this weekend

  
Published March 13, 2026 07:20 PM
Water balls are contagious at The Players' notorious No. 17
March 12, 2026 02:28 PM
TPC Sawgrass' notorious No. 17 claimed a whole group's balls during Round 1 of the 2026 Players Championship on Thursday. Gary Woodland, Cam Davis and Kevin Yu all saw their tee shots suffer a wet fate instead of hitting the island green.

Not everybody gets to play the weekend at TPC Sawgrass.

The Players Championship has officially reached its midpoint, and there are no shortage of storylines and top contenders. Some familiar names are playing the weekend so building suspense is fruitless, but it was far from an easy 36 holes for the likes of Scheffler, McIlroy and Fleetwood.

The leaderboard has some plenty of big hitters — Åberg, Schauffele, Young — that have powered through the best the course has had to offer so far.

THE PLAYERS Championship 2026 - Round Two
Players Championship 2026: Round 3 tee times, pairings and how to watch
Ludvig Åberg is being chased by Xander Schauffele and Cameron Young at The Players Championship. Here’s how to watch third-round coverage Saturday on Golf Channel.

But this tournament also has plenty of victims who failed to score lower than the cut at +2. Here are the most notable players not making it to the weekend in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida:
Lowry makes bold play off the rocks to try and make API cut
Shane Lowry needed to par the final hole to make the cut at the 2026 Arnold Palmer Invitational. After hitting his approach shot into the rock bed on 18, he took on the challenge to try and make a '4'.

Who withdrew from The Players Championship?

Collin Morikawa played one hole Thursday before exiting The Players with back tightness. The world’s fourth-ranked player, who won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am last month, withdrew before teeing off on the par-5 11th. It would have been Morikawa’s second hole of the day. Ryan Fox also withdrew because of kidney stones. He was replaced by David Ford, who missed the cut by a shot.

Did Rory McIlroy make The Players Championship cut?

McIlroy undid some of the “rust” damage from his 2-over 74 in the opening round — barely enough to get over the cutline and into the weekend.

McIlroy made the cut at last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational before bowing out ahead of Round 3 with a back injury. With another 36 holes ahead and questions about the back lingering, what kind of title defense can McIlroy make at this year’s Players? It seems battling par will be a bigger challenge than Xander Schauffele or Ludvig Åberg.

Was Scottie Scheffler cut at The Players?

Scheffler struggled for the consecutive day at TPC Sawgrass. He sits a stroke above the +2 cutline, and was dangerously to missing his first since August 2022.

Now that he’s through to the weekend, the question is now: How far can he climb up the leaderboard?

He has not let slow starts deny him top 10 finishes at TPC Scottsdale and Pebble Beach.