US Open: 7 big names who missed the cut

The 123rd US Open has reached the halfway stage and whilst the likes of Rickie Fowler, Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson can look forward to a tilt at the title over the next two days, it’s the end of the road for a large chunk of the field

Amongst those to miss the cut are several big names, including pre-tournament betting favourites, previous champions, and former world No.1s.

To quote Kevin Kisner, this ain’t no hobby, folks.

Here’s a rundown of  the biggest names whose championship ended on Friday.

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Phil Mickelson

Thirty-two times Phil has pegged it up in the US Open. Thirty-two times he’s gone home empty-handed. Disappointing for the career grand slam-chasing left-hander, he has now missed back-to-back cuts in the championship for the first time, ending a disappointing week in which he was heckled for his ties to the LIV Golf League and saw his HyFlyers team hit with a lawsuit. Not the 53rd birthday he would have been hoping for… 

Jordan Spieth 

The 29-year-old’s wretched record in the US Open, dating back to his victory in 2015, continues. Since then, he has failed to crack the top-10, going: T37, T35, cut, T65, cut, T19, T47 and cut again. The three-time major champion and former world No.1 struggled off the tee all week, hitting only 14 of his 26 fairways. 

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Justin Thomas

The two-time major champ’s recent struggles continued at Los Angeles Country Club where he had rounds of 73 and 81 to finish 14-over. Without a win since his US PGA victory 13 months ago, Thomas has been a non-factor in the game’s biggest events this year: T60 at The PLAYERS, missed the cut at The Masters, T65 in his PGA defence, and now another weekend off. Alarming.

Jason Day

Rounds of 73 and 76 contributed to a third successive missed cut for the Aussie since he ended a five-year title drought on the PGA Tour with victory in the AT&T Byron Nelson last month. Prior to that, he’d missed only two cuts in 14 worldwide starts.

Max Homa

The course record holder at Los Angeles Country Club was many people’s tip to win the championship this week. Instead, he’ll watch the final two rounds on TV with the rest of us. A horror second round did the damage. After opening with a two-under 68, he laboured to a 76 on Friday to extend his dismal major record. That’s now 16 played, nine cuts missed, and zero top-10s.  

Adam Scott

Coming into this week, the 2013 Masters champion and former world No.1 hadn’t missed a cut in over a year, stretching back 24 starts to the 2022 US PGA Championship. Rounds of 73 and 72 stopped that streak in its tracks.

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Justin Rose 

Heavily fancied at the start of the week, the 2013 champion never fully recovered from a horror start to the championship on Thursday morning. He rallied impressively in the second round but a six-over 76 on day one left him with just too much work to do.