Who missed the cut at the 2024 British Open? What big names won’t be playing this weekend?

Round 3 of the Open Championship is already underway, meaning that those who did not make the cut line from Round 2 will be watching on the hotel TV as they pack their suitcases.

And in that group of players sit a few huge names that we didn’t expect to perform so poorly. At the Open, unlike other tournaments, the top 70 (including those tied at 70) make it through to Round 3 at Royal Troon; for context, at The Masters, it’s top 50.

Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, this time round, did not make the cut and are on their way home. The performance of the former was so disappointing that even the official PGA Tour website said he “never got anything going, and never came close” to qualifying. In the end, he shot 14-over 156 (79-77).

‘The wind got the better of me’, says McIlroy

“I just wish I was more physically sharp coming into the majors,” Woods concluded. “It tests you mentally, physically, emotionally and I just wasn’t as sharp as I needed to be. I was hoping I would find it somehow, I just never did, and consequently my results and scores were pretty high.” This tournament failure comes as Woods’ third straight missed cut (PGA Championship, U.S. Open, Open Championship).

As for the Northern Irishman, who ended with a score of 11-over (78-75), had a torrid time on Friday, said that he “obviously got off to the worst start possible today, being 6-over through six.

“But then I played the last 12 holes pretty well, bogey-free. If I need to remember something about this week, it’ll be the last few holes that I played.”

“When I look back on the two majors that I didn’t play my best at, here and the Masters, the wind got the better of me on Friday at Augusta, and then the wind got the better of me the last two days here,” McIlroy added. “I didn’t adapt well at all to that left-to-right wind yesterday on the back nine, and then this afternoon going out in that gusty wind on the front, as I said, it got the better of me, and I felt pretty uncomfortable over a few shots. That four-hole stretch to start off is what cost me.”

The cut line was moved on Friday afternoon due to bad weather, with the original score of 3-over shifted to 6-over as conditions worsened. While plenty of eyebrows were raised at the seemingly very kind score, it has nothing on the record-high cut line at the Open, 8-over, which came in 1973 and 1982.

As for the highest ever cut line, that came in 1973 at Winged Foot at Mamaroneck, NY, which sat at +13 after 36 holes.