What is the cut rule at the PGA Championship?
Only the best will make it through to the weekend to battle it out for the Wanamaker Trophy!
Does the PGA Championship feature a cut rule? Will we see the field shrink after two days? Find out below!
As with the other three major championships – the Masters Tournament, US Open and Open Championship – there is a cut after two days of play.
Every year, the PGA Championship begins with 156 players, the biggest field of the four majors. That is then whittled down at the halfway mark, but how does it work?
A history of the PGA Championship cut rule
The PGA Championship has implemented a cut since the tournament switched from match play to stroke play in 1958.
For the first seven events of the stroke play era, the PGA of America conducted two cuts (one after Friday’s play and then a second after Saturday’s play).
From 1965, just the 36-hole cut has been used, in line with all other majors and tour events.
What is the PGA Championship cut rule?
The cut rule is pretty standard. Below is what is laid out in the tournament guidelines:
“Following the first 36 holes of play, the field of 156 players will be reduced to the low 70 scores and ties.
“Those players will advance to complete the final two rounds.”
The top 70 and ties will make it through to the weekend, with more than half the field missing out on a chance to take home the Wanamaker Trophy on the weekend.
If you’re wondering, Jack Nicklaus and Raymond Floyd hold the record for most cuts made at this tournament, with 27.
Incidentally, the Open Championship implements the same cut rule as the PGA Championship.
Now have your say
What do you make of the cut rule for the PGA Championship? And who do you think will lift the Wanamaker Trophy on Sunday, May 22? Let us know your thoughts with a post on X, formerly Twitter!
Matt Coles
Mention a European country, and Matt will tell you which resorts make the National Club Golfer Top 100s: European Resorts list. He might even throw in who designed the golf course and how many rooms the hotel has got at each one…
Matt got into the game of golf from a young age, following his old man to the local golf club. He fell for the sport, and now can’t seem to go a day without thinking about how to improve his game (Thanks Dad!). Matt has been a member of Howley Hall GC in Leeds since 2020, and is just about managing to maintain a single-figure handicap. He likes to remind people that he once broke 75, but won’t tell people that it was on a shortened course during the winter.
He moved to Leeds after graduating from the University of Central Lancashire with a First Class Honours degree in Sports Journalism. Matt joined NCG after almost five years travelling the world with the Professional Squash Association, working on events in all four corners of the globe.
Matt currently plays a Cobra King LTDx driver and RadSpeed 3-wood. TaylorMade monopolise the rest of his bag, with a SIM UDI, M5 irons and both Milled Grind and HI-TOE wedges, along with a Monza Redline putter. He uses a Vice Pro Plus golf ball, because he’s a bit different…
Away from golf, Matt is a Manchester United fan, and a keen runner, having ran the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon (his first and possibly last), in May 2023.
