Going home early is always disappointing when you’re playing on the PGA Tour. Going home early in one of the biggest events of the year with $25 million on the line and a tractor-trailer FedEx Cup points available is even more frustrating.
But come Friday at the Players Championship, several players considered contenders heading into the week at TPC Sawgrass found themselves packing their bags early, victims of a cut line that fell at one-under 143, the second lowest in Players history. Below are a list of the 10 most unexpected names to find themselves on the wrong side of the missed cut line.
Justin Rose 71-73—144
The Englishman missed by a shot, bogeying his second to last hole then making a too-little-too-late birdie on the last. The Players has been a hit or miss tournament for the Rose during his career, having played 20 times now and missed 10 cuts. His more recent record is even more up and down: in his last five starts he’s T-8, MC, T-6, MC, MC.
Perhaps playing for a six straight week (and coming off five straight top-13 performances, including a T-2 at Phoenix and a fourth at Bay Hill) finally caught up to the social media gadfly, whose rough opening round made it extra challenging to get to the weekend. The most frustrating thing for Kim was one more good week at TPC Sawgrass would likely have seen him jump into the top 50 of the OWGR and earn a spot in the Masters, an amazing trick given he was 132nd at the end of January.
Hideki Matsuyama 
Ben Jared
74-70—144
He has had five top-10s in nine previous starts at TPC Sawgrass, including fifth in 2023 and T-6 in 2024. And with a win earlier this year at the Sentry, many naturally thought the Japanese star was a favorite this week. Matsuyama had a 16-footer for birdie on the 18th hole Friday that would have squeaked him into the weekend but couldn’t get it to fall.
Adam Scott 74-72—146
The Aussie, winner at TPC Sawgrass in 2004, had played in the event more times (22) than any other player in the field, and had missed the cut on just four occasions. He also hadn’t missed a cut yet in four starts on tour this season.
Ludvig Aberg 
Harry How
71-75—146
The Swede is arguably the biggest surprise of anyone who isn’t playing on the weekend, given that he finished eighth as a rookie at Sawgrass a year ago and that he was a winner at the Genesis Invitational last month.
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Viktor Hovland 80-68—148
Hovland’s self-deprecating style makes it tricky to figure out just what kind of state his game really is in at any point in time. But that 80 on Thursday showed the struggle thus far in 2025 is real for the Norwegian. Give the man a lot of credit for the bounce-back 68, too little, too late to fix this week’s issue, but hopefully a sign that the hole he’s dug for himself isn’t too deep.
Max Homa 
Alex Slitz
79-71—250
Another guy you tip your cap to for pedaling super hard in the second round after a blowing a tire in the first. But Homa has some real issues that he needs to figure out real fast as he’s about to fall outside the top 70 in the World Ranking and risks missing out on player in the U.S. Open and British Open this year.
Tony Finau 76-76—152
Finau’s best finish at TPC Sawgrass is T-19 in 2023 and this is now five missed cuts in nine career Players starts. Considering he’d finished T-13 at Pebble and T-5 at the Genesis, it seemed like he’d play better this week, but it just might just be that this isn’t the place for him
Maverick McNealy 72-81—153
The Stanford grad has had an impressive season to date, rising to 12th in the FedEx Cup standings. But last week at Bay Hill he went 73-80 and now at Sawgrass he had a similar disastrous second round. The crazy part is that of 28 rounds this year on tour, McNealy has shot worse than 75 just three times.
Wyndham Clark 
Jared C. Tilton
72-WD
Clark’s runner-up showing a year ago, painfully just missing a putt on the 72nd hole to force a playoff, had many betting on him to do well this week. But after playing his front nine on Friday in four over par, the 2023 U.S. Open champ pulled out citing a neck injury. It was a bittersweet end to what Clark had hoped might be a redemptive week.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
