Missing the cut at the Open Championship is irrefutably the worst of the year’s four majors. Can’t argue with math, right? Those who didn’t make it to Moving Day at Royal Birkdale now have a painstakingly-long wait until the Masters in April for their next chance at major championship golf.
While the chase is still on for the claret jug, this weekend won’t be as dramatic for someone like Jordan Spieth. His pursuit of a Birkdale repeat was scuttled by putting woes on Friday that included a quadruple bogey at the 17th hole to shoot 77.
Matt Fitzpatrick and Justin Rose, a pair of popular picks, also won’t have a chance to play in front of their native England fans on Saturday — or Sunday for that matter.
Before looking at who missed the cut at the Open Championship, let’s look at how the cut works and what number proved to be the cut-off after 36 holes.
How does the Open Championship cut line work?
After 36 holes, the low 70 players and ties advance to compete in the final two rounds. Anyone finishing worse than that gets the boot. Only those making the cut earn official money from this year’s $17,750,000 million purse.
What was the cut at the Open Championship?
The cut line fell at 1 over par. Seventy-eight players made it to the weekend.
Who missed the cut at the 2026 Open Championship?
Of those playing well this year, Fitzpatrick has to be the biggest name to miss out.
Recent Open Championship winners Brian Harman and Cameron Smith were other notable names missing the cut. Ditto for two-time Open champ Padraig Harrington, the last man to repeat, in 2007 and 2008.
This year’s Tour winners not making it to the weekend include Viktor Hovland, Gary Woodland and Tom Kim.
Haotong Li brought in both good course history (solo third at Birkdale in 2017) and strong recent results at The Open (T-4 last year at Royal Portrush). None of that mattered as he went 72-72.
Keith Mitchell, coming off his best finish at a major with a T-4 at Shinnecock, also slammed his trunk. Speaking of Shinnecock, two-time U.S. Open winner Wyndham Clark headed home after posting 73-70. PGA Champ Aaron Rai is also exiting early after a pair of 71s.
