These 7 players’ missed cuts at 2025 Open hurt the most — here’s why

Before the action gets started on Saturday, we’re assembling our crew of on-site Open Championship writers to put a bow on the early-week action — specifically who made, and missed, the 36-hole cut. Let’s start with the painful stuff and then get uplifting to finish.

1. Whose Open Championship MC hurt the most?

Gimme two players each.

James Colgan: Collin Morikawa. It wasn’t all that long ago that Morikawa arrived at Pebble Beach for the AT&T Pro-Am as one of the very best players in the world; all that remained was getting over the line for a victory. Now he leaves the Open after multiple caddie splits, a few testy moments and a major season that peaked with a Masters T14. After playing Royal Portrush’s opening 36 holes in the same group as Scottie Scheffler and losing by 17 shots, the gap between him and the top of the game looks pretty wide.

Sean Zak: Patrick Reed. It may have been only a faint possibility that he played his way onto the Ryder Cup team, but the door was certainly shut this week when he shot 77 in the first round. He’s been hovering at a top-40-in-the-world level this summer, which is very good. It’s just not good enough to make the American Ryder Cup team.

Dylan Dethier: Cameron Smith is the only golfer to play in all four majors this year and miss all four cuts. The fact that he beat just a dozen or so players after a second-round 78 made this MC particularly demoralizing. Smith won the 2022 Open and finished top 10 in three of the next five majors after that; those trips to contention are starting to feel very long ago.

Colgan: Patrick Cantlay. After undressing the International team a year ago at the Presidents Cup, it seemed unfathomable that Cantlay would be anything other than a lock for the U.S. Ryder Cup team as the golf calendar flipped to August 2025. Well, now we’re in late-July ’25, and Cantlay has missed three straight cuts at the majors, his only weekend finish coming in a T36 at the Masters.

To be clear, I still think Cantlay is an easy pick for the roster in Bethpage given his match play record, but the major season in a Ryder Cup year is about building a resume, and Cantlay has certainly had better.

Zak: Adam Scott. I wondered (on this website) if his performance at Oakmont might be one of his last true contention moments in a major. I’d hope it isn’t, but you never know! Scott has played in 97 consecutive majors and should make that 98 when he tees it up at Augusta in April. But he’s not automatically qualified to play any of the others. He’s currently outside looking in on the FedEx Cup Playoffs, too. As a result, he is headed from Portrush straight to Minneapolis for his first-ever appearance at the 3M Open.

Dethier: Brooks Koepka. There’s no questioning the man’s pedigree; Koepka’s a five-time major champ who’s tied with Rory McIlroy for the most majors in the post-Tiger-and-Phil era. But he’s just missed his third major cut of 2025 and has just one top-25 — last month’s T12 at the U.S. Open — in his last nine starts.

One more guy that merits mention: Tom McKibbin. The 22-year-old Northern Irishman entered the week as a local favorite; at the moment he’s this country’s next-best player behind Rory McIlroy. There’s no questioning McKibbin’s talent, but it will be interesting to see how successfully he can play his way into future majors; he’s currently not in line to qualify for any of the four in 2026.

2. On to the good stuff, then: whose made cut meant the most?

Two each — Colgan, you start again.

Colgan: Bryson DeChambeau’s made cut was particularly significant given the way Thursday unfolded at Royal Portrush. I’ll admit I thought the big guy was out of it after an opening-round 78. He looked how he’s looked in most starts at the Open Championship on Thursday, which is to say out of sorts. Then he came out on Friday and recorded a brilliant 65 and followed that on Saturday with another impressive 68. For the player in the field whose game seems least optimized for these conditions, I’m impressed by his toughness.

Zak: Justin Leonard. The 53-year-old had some certified pep in his step when I chatted with him Thursday evening, fresh off his opening-round 70. After a second-round 73 he has his first made cut in a major since the 2014 U.S. Open. I’d be hyped too!

Dethier: Lee Westwood. The 52-year-old hadn’t even played in a major since the 2022 Open, the summer he signed with LIV. The fact that he qualified and then didn’t just make the cut but played his way into contention? It was a reminder that this is a guy with five top-four finishes at this event amidst his decades of top-tier pro golf.

Colgan: Matt Fitzpatrick. A scroll through the Ryder Cup rankings reveals just how far Fitzy fell during the doldrums of the last 18 months (he ranks 22nd before Portrush is tabulated, behind Jorge Campillo and Jon Rahm, the latter of whom has not received Ryder Cup points for any of his LIV tournaments). On Saturday, he’ll play the Open in the final pairing next to Scottie Scheffler — a sign of where his golf is trending, and another piece of good news for Euro captain Luke Donald.

Zak: Justin Thomas. As the owner of one of the more confounding major championship records, JT kinda needed this one. He had missed the cut at Quail Hollow and Oakmont and had just one top-30 in 13 major starts dating back to his 2022 PGA win. He’ll be glad for a couple weekend rounds on a big stage before he becomes a massive piece of the U.S. Ryder Cup team.

Dethier: Jordan Spieth. Talk about a guy with a lot going on at the minute. Spieth missed six months post-surgery, came back and played a million events in a row, showed pretty good form, withdrew from the Travelers with an injury, took some time off, became a father for the third time and arrived in Northern Ireland in time for this week’s Open. He’s lurking just inside the top 50 in the FedEx Cup, he’s at the edge of the Ryder Cup conversation and even a 50th-place result at Portrush looks and feels a lot better than an MC.

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