Cut Line
A cut line is the score in a professional golf tournament that decides which players advance to the final rounds and which players go home early. It is set after the second round in most stroke-play events, and any player at or below that score plays the weekend.
What is a cut line in golf?
The cut line separates golfers who continue in a tournament from those who are eliminated. In a standard four-round professional event, that line is drawn at the halfway point, after 36 holes have been played on Thursday and Friday. Make it, and a player advances to the weekend. Miss it, and the tournament is over, regardless of reputation or world ranking.
The cut exists because tournament fields are larger than the number of players the weekend can practically hold. Most PGA Tour events start with 120 to 156 golfers in the field, and the tour wants the third and fourth rounds to have a tighter group with a cleaner pace of play and better television coverage. A cut, then, is a way to narrow a sprawling field down to the players in the best form that week.
Cut lines are a feature of stroke play. Match play tournaments, where players face each other one-on-one, do not use them, since the bracket itself eliminates losers round by round.
How the cut line is determined
Every tournament sets a “cut rule” before the first ball is struck. The rule defines the criteria, but the actual cut line is the score that satisfies that criteria once the second round ends.
For most regular PGA Tour events, the rule is the top 65 players and ties after 36 holes. According to the 2026 PGA Tour Player Handbook, this is the standard cut format used across the season’s regular stroke-play tournaments, and the DP World Tour follows the same rule. Once the second round wraps up, scorers sort the leaderboard from lowest to highest, and the score posted by the player in 65th place becomes the cut line. Anyone at or below it plays the weekend. Anyone tied with the 65th-place score is also through, which is why “and ties” matters and why the weekend field often runs to 70, 75, or even 80 players.
A cut line is rarely a round number. It depends entirely on the scores being posted that week and on how the course is playing. Easy conditions push it lower (under par). High winds, firm greens, or a tough setup push it higher into the over-par range. At the 2025 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, the cut fell at 1 over par, NBC Sports reported, with 74 players making it through from a starting field of 156.
Cut line vs. cut rule
These two terms are often used interchangeably, but they mean different things, and the distinction is the key to understanding how cuts actually work.
A cut rule is the formula a tournament uses. It is fixed in advance. The 2026 PGA Tour cut rule is “top 65 and ties after 36 holes.” That sentence does not change.
A cut line is the specific score that the rule produces in a given week. Friday afternoon is when it is set, after the second round wraps. If 65th place sits at 2 under par, the cut line is 2 under par; if 65th sits at 3 over, the cut line is 3 over.
Why the cut line moves
During Friday’s second round, broadcasters often say, “the cut line just moved to plus two” or “if she makes birdie here, that moves the cut line.” The line shifts because players whose scores affect the 65th-place position are still on the course.
Golf Compendium’s explainer breaks it down. Imagine the cut line is sitting at 5 over par because there are 65 players at 5 over or better, and the player in 65th place is still on the 18th green. She bogeys the last hole and drops to 6 over. The players who were at 6 over now meet the criteria, and the cut line moves with her, from 5 over to 6 over. A birdie instead of a bogey would have done the opposite, tightening the line to 4 over.
The line keeps shifting as long as there are golfers on the course whose scores can affect 65th place. Once every second round is complete, the cut line is final.
Cut line at the major championships
The four men’s majors each set their own cut rules, and they all differ from the standard PGA Tour format. The Masters cuts the smallest field of the four because it starts with the smallest field. The US Open cuts the deepest. The PGA Championship and the Open Championship sit in the middle.
| Tournament | Cut rule (after 36 holes) | Typical field size |
|---|---|---|
| The Masters | Top 50 and ties | ~85–95 players |
| US Open | Top 60 and ties | 156 players |
| PGA Championship | Top 70 and ties | 156 players |
| Open Championship | Top 70 and ties | 156 players |
| Standard PGA Tour | Top 65 and ties | 120–156 players |
Source: Golf Monthly, NBC Sports, USGA. The 10-stroke rule, which used to allow any player within 10 shots of the leader to make the cut at the majors, was dropped by the Masters in 2020 and is no longer used by any of the four men’s majors, according to National Club Golfer.
The LPGA Tour also uses a top-65-and-ties cut after 36 holes for its regular events.
Make the cut vs. miss the cut
A player who finishes the second round at or under the cut line has “made the cut.” A player who finishes above it has “missed the cut,” is eliminated from the tournament, and goes home Friday evening.
The financial gap between the two is significant. On the regular PGA Tour, players who miss the cut receive no prize money, though they collect Official World Golf Ranking points based on the field strength. The four men’s majors are the main exception. The US Open paid missed-cut professionals a flat fee of $10,000 in 2024, according to Golf Monthly, with the PGA Championship and the Open Championship also paying smaller amounts to those who go home early.
Missing cuts is a normal part of professional golf, even at the elite level. Jordan Spieth missed four cuts during his 2015 PGA Tour Player of the Year season, per Liveabout’s reporting.
Related Golf Terms
- Course rating — A numerical value representing the difficulty of a course for a scratch golfer.
- Condor — A score of four under par on a single hole (extremely rare).
- Cup — The hole on the putting green where the ball must be sunk.
- Course management — Strategic decision-making about shot selection and risk management during play.
- Crosswind — Wind blowing across the line of play rather than with or against it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does MDF mean on a golf leaderboard?
MDF stands for “made cut, did not finish.” It refers to a rare PGA Tour situation in which a player makes the 36-hole cut but is eliminated by a secondary 54-hole cut. The PGA Tour effectively phased out the secondary cut after the 2018-19 season by lowering the standard cut to top 65 and ties, though MDF can still appear in older scores.
Are amateurs included in the cut?
Yes. Amateurs who tee it up in professional events count toward the cut and are ranked alongside the professionals. Amateurs who make the cut do not collect prize money, since their amateur status forbids it, but they keep playing all four rounds.
Can the cut line be lower than par?
Yes. On easier courses or in weeks with mild conditions, the cut line often falls under par. The 2025 Players Championship cut at 1 under par is a recent example, per Golf Digest.
Why do some events have no cut?
Smaller-field tournaments, invitationals, and team events often skip the cut because the field is already small enough to manage across four days. The Sentry, the Tour Championship, and the Ryder Cup are common examples. The Ryder Cup, specifically, has no cut because it is a match-play format.
Sources
- PGA Tour. “2026 PGA TOUR Player Handbook and Tournament Regulations.” Accessed May 2026.
- Golf Compendium. “What Does It Mean When the Cutline Moves?” Accessed May 2026.
- Golf Monthly. “PGA Tour’s Cut Rule Explained: How Many Golfers Make The Weekend.” Accessed May 2026.
- Golf Monthly. “US Open Cut Rule: How Many Golfers Make It To The Weekend?” Accessed May 2026.
- NBC Sports. “What is the PGA Championship cut line and how does it compare to other majors?” May 2025.
- Golf Digest. “Players 2026: How the 36-hole cutline is decided at TPC Sawgrass.” March 2026.
- National Club Golfer. “What are the PGA Tour cut rules?” Accessed May 2026.
- Liveabout. “What It Means to Miss the Cut in a Golf Tournament.” Accessed May 2026.
