Friday’s action at the 2025 PGA Championship could be split into two parts. One was the battle for position at the top of the leaderboard as there were plenty of opportunities to climb into contention after the first-round leaders all stagnated. The other battle was happening further down at the cut line, which was 1 over coming into the day and barely ever moved off that number.
A few of golf’s biggest stars barely skirted into the weekend: Rory McIlroy bogeyed his final two holes to fall back to 1 over after looking like he would be under par following a resurgent second round, while Xander Schauffele had to play the back nine in 2 under just to make the cut on the number.
Some stars were not as lucky, though. Jordan Spieth, Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka all missed the cut by one shot. Hideki Matsuyama’s made cut streak at majors ended at 19 as he was part of the group at 3 over along with Ludvig Åberg and Justin Thomas.
The struggles of McIlroy and Thomas are particularly notable. Rory entered the weekend as a clear 5-1 favorite alongside Scottie Scheffler. Not only did he win the Masters and complete the career grand slam just last month, he was the only man in the field to win four times across his career at Quail Hollow. Thomas, whose game has bounced back significantly in 2025, raised the Wanamaker Trophy the last time the PGA Championship was held in Charlotte.
While they wound up on opposite ends of the line Friday evening, to this point, they have similarly disappointed. However, McIlroy at least has an opportunity to make good over the next 36 holes and somehow, some way push his name up the leaderboard.
2025 PGA Championship missed cuts
- Jordan Spieth (+2)
- Shane Lowry (+2)
- Sepp Straka (+2)
- Akshay Bhatia (+2)
- Hideki Matsuyama (+3)
- Ludvig Åberg (+3)
- Justin Thomas (+3)
- Min Woo Lee (+4)
- Rickie Fowler (+4)
- Patrick Reed (+4)
- Sungjae Im (+5)
- Patrick Cantlay (+6)
- Jason Day (+6)
- Will Zalatoris (+6)
- Cameron Smith (+7)
- Phil Mickelson (+9)
- Brooks Koepka (+9)
- Russell Henley (+10)
- Dustin Johnson (+12)