Missed the Cut
Missing the cut in golf means a player scored too high over the opening rounds of a tournament to qualify for the final rounds, so their week ends early and they go home without finishing the event.
What does ‘missed the cut’ mean?
Most professional stroke play tournaments run over four rounds, but not everyone who starts gets to play all four. Partway through, the field is trimmed to the better-scoring players, and the rest are sent home before the tournament finishes. A golfer in that second group has missed the cut.
The trim almost always happens after 36 holes, at the halfway point of a standard 72-hole event. The score that separates the two groups is the cut line. A player at or below it makes the cut and plays two more rounds; anyone above it has missed the cut. Match play tournaments, where golfers face off head to head rather than against the whole field, don’t use cuts at all, so a missed cut is purely a stroke play idea.
Cuts exist to manage the size of the weekend field. In the earliest days of tournament golf, small fields of 20 or 30 players made a cut unnecessary. As entries grew, organisers needed a way to thin the herd so the final rounds moved at a reasonable pace and the contenders got the attention. According to Golf Compendium, the British Open began in 1860 but didn’t use a cut until 1898, and the Masters, first played in 1934, didn’t introduce one until 1957. Once tournaments reached television, the cut also kept broadcasts on schedule by focusing airtime on the players still in contention.
How the cut line is determined
Two things decide who goes home: the cut rule and the cut line. They sound similar, but they aren’t the same.
The cut rule is the standard an event sets in advance. On the PGA Tour, most regular tournaments now cut to the top 65 players and ties after 36 holes, a rule tightened from the top 70 and ties starting in the 2019-2020 season, per Golf News Net. The rule sets how many players survive, not the actual score they need.
The cut line is that actual score, and it isn’t known until late in the second round. If scoring has been low all week, the line might land at a few under par; if the course has played brutally hard, it could sit well over par. Golf Compendium uses a clean example: in a top-60-and-ties event, if 60 players sit at +10 and the golfer in 60th makes a bogey to fall to +11, three others already at +11 join them, and the line moves from +10 to +11. That is why television commentators talk about the cut line “moving” as the afternoon scores roll in. Nobody sets the number ahead of time; the players set it with their scores.
Not every event has a cut. Smaller-field tournaments often run all four rounds with everyone who started, and these are called no-cut events. On the PGA Tour, an event generally needs a field of at least 120 players to hold a 36-hole cut.
What happens when a player misses the cut
The immediate result is simple: the player packs up after Friday’s round and doesn’t play the weekend. The bigger consequences are financial and competitive.
At most regular PGA Tour events, missing the cut means no prize money at all. Golf Monthly puts it plainly: the top 65 and ties get paid, and the rest earn nothing, even after covering travel, hotel, and a caddie for the week. A missed cut also means no FedExCup points, which feed the season-long standings that determine tour status and playoff qualification. String too many together, and a player can lose their card.
The major championships are the exception. All four pay professionals who miss the cut, partly as a reward just for qualifying. As of 2025, the Masters pays $25,000 to every professional who misses the cut, up from $10,000, according to Golf News Net. The US Open paid $10,000 in 2024, the PGA Championship paid $4,300 in 2026, and the Open Championship uses a sliding scale that pays more to the players who miss by the smallest margin.
Amateurs are treated differently everywhere. Under the Rules of Amateur Status, an amateur in the field cannot accept prize money, whether they make the cut or not. Caddies, on the other hand, are usually covered by a base fee agreed for the week, then earn a percentage of any check their player wins, which BetMGM puts at roughly 8 to 10 percent.
Missed cut vs. other leaderboard terms
Missing the cut is one of several ways a player’s tournament can end short of the finish, and the abbreviations that show up on a leaderboard each mean something different.
| Leaderboard term | What it means | Money and points |
|---|---|---|
| Made cut | Scored at or below the cut line; plays all remaining rounds | Eligible for full prize money and points |
| MC (missed cut) | Scored above the 36-hole cut line; eliminated at the halfway point | No money or points at most events (majors pay a set amount) |
| MDF (made cut, didn’t finish) | Made the 36-hole cut but was removed by a secondary cut after 54 holes | Paid and awarded points as a player who made the cut |
| WD (withdrawal) | Left the event voluntarily, often through injury or illness | No money if before the cut; last-place money if after |
| DQ (disqualified) | Removed by officials for a rules breach, such as an incorrect scorecard | No money or points, whenever it happens |
MDF is the one that confuses fans most. Introduced by the PGA Tour in 2008, it applied when more than 78 players made the 36-hole cut, triggering a second cut after 54 holes to bring the weekend field back toward 70. Players caught by that second cut had technically made the cut, so they kept their money and points, but they didn’t play Sunday. LiveAbout notes the tour phased out the secondary cut in the 2019-2020 season, so MDF rarely appears on modern leaderboards, though it still turns up in older records and in commentary.
Cut rules at the major championships
Each major sets its own cut rule, which is why the number of weekend players varies from one to the next. The four men’s majors are shown below alongside a regular PGA Tour event for comparison, drawing on Golf Monthly and Golf News Net.
| Championship | 36-hole cut rule |
|---|---|
| The Masters | Top 50 and ties |
| US Open | Top 60 and ties |
| PGA Championship | Top 70 and ties |
| The Open Championship | Top 70 and ties |
| Regular PGA Tour event | Top 65 and ties |
The Masters runs the most forgiving cut of the majors, keeping the top 50 and ties, so in its small invitational field, fewer than half the players go home. It also has no secondary cut: once a player makes it to the weekend at Augusta, they are guaranteed both remaining rounds.
Related Golf Terms
- Made the cut — Qualifying to continue into the weekend rounds of a tournament.
- Career grand slam — Winning each of the four majors at some point over a career.
- Playoff — Extra holes played to break a tie at the end of regulation.
- FedEx Cup — The PGA Tour’s season-long points competition and playoff series.
- Grand slam — Winning all four professional major championships in a single year.
Frequently Asked Questions
How common is it for pros to miss the cut?
It happens to almost everyone, even at the top. When Jordan Spieth was PGA Tour Player of the Year in 2015, he still missed four cuts, per LiveAbout. The rarest feat is the opposite: Tiger Woods once made 142 consecutive cuts through 2005, breaking Byron Nelson’s long-standing record.
Can you miss the cut in match play?
No. Match play pits players against each other one on one, and losers are simply knocked out of their match. The cut, and therefore the missed cut, only exists in stroke play events scored against the whole field.
Does a missed cut count as an official start?
Yes. It counts as a tournament the player entered and played, and it appears in their record. What it doesn’t produce, at most events, is prize money or ranking points.
What is the cut line versus the cut rule?
The cut rule is the standard set before play, such as “top 65 and ties.” The cut line is the actual score that ends up meeting that standard, which is only known once enough second-round scores are in.
Sources
- Golf News Net. “What is the PGA Tour cut rule, and how is the cut line determined?” Accessed July 2026.
https://thegolfnewsnet.com/ryan_ballengee/2026/04/10/what-is-pga-tour-cut-rule-2025-how-cut-line-determined-102941/ - Golf Compendium. “The Cut in Golf and Why Tournaments Have Them.” Accessed July 2026.
https://www.golfcompendium.com/2024/11/the-cut-in-golf-tournaments.html - Golf Compendium. “What Does It Mean When the Cutline Moves?” Accessed July 2026.
https://www.golfcompendium.com/2024/11/what-does-it-mean-when-cutline-moves.html - LiveAbout. “What It Means to ‘Miss the Cut’ in a Golf Tournament.” Accessed July 2026.
https://www.liveabout.com/miss-the-cut-1564217 - LiveAbout. “What Does MDF in Golf Scores Mean?” Accessed July 2026.
https://www.liveabout.com/what-does-mdf-in-golf-scores-mean-1565771 - Golf Monthly. “Do Golfers Get Paid For Missing The Cut?” Accessed July 2026.
https://www.golfmonthly.com/features/do-golfers-get-paid-for-missing-the-cut - Golf News Net. “Do Masters Tournament players get paid if they miss the cut?” Accessed July 2026.
https://thegolfnewsnet.com/ryan_ballengee/2026/04/10/do-masters-tournament-players-get-paid-if-they-miss-the-cut-132057/ - CaddieHQ. “What Does MDF Mean in Golf?” Accessed July 2026.
https://www.caddiehq.com/resources/what-does-mdf-mean-in-golf - BetMGM. “Do PGA Tour Players Get Paid if They Miss the Cut?” Accessed July 2026.
https://sports.betmgm.com/en/blog/pga/do-pga-tour-players-get-paid-if-miss-the-cut-bm10/
