For the past 78 PGA tournaments that Scottie Scheffler competed in, there was one guarantee. No, it wasn’t that the world’s No. 1-ranked golfer would win, though he did that often; rather, it was that fans would get four rounds of Scheffler. For 78 consecutive PGA Tour events, Scheffler saw the weekend by making the cut, but this historic streak came to an end on Friday.
At the Genesis Scottish Open, Scheffler wasn’t able to overcome the challenges that the links-style course of Renaissance Club threw at him as he failed to make the cut. He shot 2-under par on Thursday before 2-over par on Friday to finish at even par. That left him two strokes back of the 2-under cut line as the four-time major winner wasn’t one of the 71 golfers who’ll get to see the weekend.
Thus, for the first time since the FedEx St. Jude Championship in August 2022, Scheffler gets a weekend off. For context, we’re in the midst of the 2026 FIFA World Cup knockout stage, currently in the quarterfinals. Scheffler’s last missed cut prior to this one came even before the 2022 FIFA World Cup took place, as it was held in November and December that year to avoid Qatar’s summer season.
The 78-tournament streak was the longest among active golfers and is the fifth-longest in PGA Tour history. Tiger Woods owns the record with 142 straight made cuts, followed by Byron Nelson (113), Jack Nicklaus (105), and Hale Irwin (86).
Now, the golfer with the longest active streak of made cuts belongs to Matt Fitzpatrick. The Englishman is also part of the Genesis Scottish Open field and did make the cut by shooting 8-under-par. It is Fitzpatrick’s 28th straight made cut, and besides Hideki Matsuyama (27 made cuts), no other golfer has an active streak of at least 20 straight made cuts.
Fitzpatrick did more than just make the cut at the event in North Berwick, Scotland, as he enters round 3 tied for fourth on the leaderboard. He’s just one stroke back of the co-leaders, Jordan Smith, Tom Kim, and Rory McIlroy, who each shot 9-under par.
Scheffler’s was battling uphill to make the cut seemingly from the start of round 2, which got off to a poor start with bogeys on two of the first three holes. He talked about digging a hole for himself that he was simply unable to get out of.
“I got off to a tough start, and then on the back nine I didn’t feel like I was hitting it close enough to give myself enough opportunities,” Scheffler told reporters after Friday’s round. “I think that’s what it really comes down to. I got off to a poor start and didn’t really hit it close enough to give myself a bunch of looks, and that’s how you shoot over par.”
The Genesis Scottish Open is a course where Scheffler has historically had mixed results. He played this event last year and finished in a solid eighth place. He didn’t play in 2024, but the prior year he was even better and placed third. However, his first start at this tournament in 2022 had the same result as his most recent start, as he missed the cut back then as well.
Scheffler reflected on his 78-tournament run, which lasted 1,428 days.
“It’s a little different now with some of the signature events not having cuts,” Scheffler said. “But, you know, I don’t think I finished outside of the top 20 or something like that many times this year.
“I’m definitely proud of the consistency and wish I had a couple days over the weekend to make up some ground. But overall, get down to Birkdale a little earlier than expected and get used to a new course.”
Birkdale is Royal Birkdale Golf Club, and if there is a silver lining to this missed cut, it’s that Scheffler will get to practice at the aforementioned for an extra two days. Birkdale will host next week’s Open Championship, the year’s last major and one in which Scheffler is the defending champion. He’s never competed at Royal Birkdale before, so an abbreviated Genesis Scottish Open could lead to more comfortability, and ultimately success, at the Open Championship.
On the same day that the world’s top-ranked men’s golfer missed the cut in his respective event, the No. 1-ranked women’s golfer did the same on her tour. Nelly Korda, a four-time major winner herself, saw her bid for a third straight major come to an end when she missed the cut at the Evian Championship. She shot one-over par over her two rounds, missing the cut line by one stroke.
Per the Elias Sports Bureau, it’s the first time that both the No. 1-ranked men’s and women’s golfers missed the cut on the same weekend since women’s golf rankings were introduced in 2006.
