CHARLOTTE, N.C. — After a wild and unpredictable start on Thursday, the PGA Championship gets down to business on Friday. The top players in the world have a whole lot of work to do if they want to get back in the hunt … or even make the cut.
Per PGA Championship rules, the field of 156 players is reduced to the low 70 scorers and ties to continue onward into the weekend. After the first day of play, the projected cut line stood at +1, and Quail Hollow is playing to a par of 71 strokes.
Notable names on the low side of the cut line: Rory McIlroy (+3 after the first round), Patrick Cantlay (+3), Brooks Koepka (+4), Justin Rose (+5), Cam Smith (+7), Phil Mickelson (+8), and Dustin Johnson (+12).
(These numbers are sure to change by the time you are reading this.)
Some PGA Championship cut line facts and figures:
The lowest cut line in PGA Tour history was 140 strokes, or even par, at Bellerive Country Club in 2018; Brooks Koepka would go on to win that tournament. The highest cut line was 154 strokes, or an astounding +14, in 1958 at the Llanerch Country Club.
Only three major championships have ever had a cut line under par, and all were -1: the 1990 Open Championship at St. Andrews, the 2006 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, and the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla.
Three players — Raymond Floyd, Jack Nicklaus and Mickelson — hold the PGA Championship record for most cuts made at 27. Tom Watson is second with 25, and Arnold Palmer and Hale Irwin rank third with 24. Mickelson holds the record alone for most consecutive PGA starts making the cut, with 21 from 1996 to 2016. Tom Kite (17) and Bruce Crampton (15) are the next-closest players with consecutive seasons; Billy Casper and Gary Player both made 19 straight cuts, but did not play the tournament every year during that stretch.
The last PGA Professional to make two consecutive cuts in a PGA Championship is Tom Wargo, who pulled off the feat in 1992 and 1993.