Fowler, Day Top List of Notable Missed Cuts

Rickie Fowler and Jason Day are among some of the bigger names to miss the cut Friday at the PGA Championship but it was the World No. 7, Matt Fitzpatrick, who missed in the most devastating fashion.

Fitzpatrick, the 2022 U.S. Open champion, shot 6-over 76 in the first round but opened his second round at Oak Hill with birdies on the third and fourth holes. He then played his next 11 holes in even par and was comfortably inside the cut line.

Then disaster struck. Fitzpatrick made consecutive bogeys on the last two holes, including a three-putt on the last from 50 feet, to miss the cut by one shot. He shot even-par 70.

On the 17th hole, Fitzpatrick drove the ball well left and he had to hack it out into the middle of the fairway. From 117 yards, he hit wedge to 18 and missed that. Then on the home hole, Fitzpatrick hit his approach to 50 feet, but hit his first putt 8 feet beyond the pin and missed it. He was visibly distraught, clearly knowing what was at stake.

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Fowler, 49th in the world, only made three birdies in two days, against nine bogeys. The last time he played in a major was last year’s PGA Championship at Southern Hills where he tied for 23rd place.

Day, last week’s winner of the AT&T Byron Nelson, did not play a practice round at Oak Hill this week, opting to conserve energy after a draining victory for the first time in five years. He made five birdies in an eight-hole stretch on Friday, but then bogeyed the 16th hole and made double bogey on the 17th to miss the cut by three shots.

Cameron Young, a New York native who is ranked 15th in the world, came into the week with high expectations after finishing in the top seven in three of his previous four major championships. He shot 74-75 and received a two-stroke penalty on the 16th hole, his seventh of the day, when he failed to return his ball marker to the proper position on the green before putting. He had moved his marker to the side because it was in the line of both playing partners, Tommy Fleetwood and Hideki Matsuyama, and did not move it back.

Both Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas had to make 8 footers on the last hole to advance to the weekend. Spieth, who was questionable to play early in the week because of an injured left wrist, hit his approach in the greenside bunker on 18 and blasted out to 8 feet. He made the par putt to make the cut on the number.

Thomas, the 2022 PGA Champion, drove it into the right fairway bunker on the last hole and left the ball in the bunker on his second shot. He then hit his third out, hit a wedge to 8 feet from 94 yards and made that putt for bogey to make the cut on the number at 5-over total.