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Players Championship 2026: Who made and missed the cut at TPC Sawgrass?

  
Published March 13, 2026 07:20 PM
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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.

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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:
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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.