What is the cut line in golf and how is it calculated?
Come Friday evening at most golf tournaments, roughly half the field packs up and goes home — no prize money, no weekend TV time. Here's exactly how the cut works, and why the line keeps moving while you watch.
The basics: what is "the cut"?
Most professional golf tournaments run over four rounds, played Thursday to Sunday. After the first two rounds — 36 holes — the field is trimmed down. Only the players inside the cut line continue into the weekend; everyone outside it finishes their tournament there and then.
Getting into that starting field in the first place is its own process — at major championships like The Open, world ranking position plays a big part in who qualifies. We've covered that separately in our golf world rankings explainer.
How is the cut line set?
The exact rule varies by tournament, but the principle is always the same: a cut score is set based on where a specific position in the field lands, and anyone at or better than that score survives.
Example: If the 70th and 71st-placed players are both tied at +2, both go through — the field for the weekend ends up slightly larger than 70, because ties aren't split.
Why does the projected cut line move during play?
On Friday afternoon, broadcasters and leaderboards often show a "projected cut line" — an estimate of where the cut will land based on scores already in. This isn't the final number. As more groups finish their rounds and the scoring gets harder or easier depending on conditions, the projection shifts, sometimes several times an hour.
The projected cut line only becomes official once every player in the field has completed their second round. Until then, it's a live estimate — which is exactly why players walking the back nine on Friday are often doing mental arithmetic on where they stand.
What happens if you miss the cut?
Missing the cut means no more competitive rounds that week, no weekend TV coverage, and — at most events — no prize money at all. It's a hard financial line as much as a sporting one, which is part of why Friday afternoons at a golf tournament carry so much quiet tension around the bottom of the leaderboard.
Follow every round of the big tournaments — open Watchsport
Open Watchsport →