What Is The Cut Line In Golf?
The cut line is the score that represents the golfers that are still playing and golfers that have been cut from the overall tournament itself. For example, in a six-player tournament, there may be a cut after the first three rounds. The cut would send the bottom half of the six home, while the other three would stay and continue to compete. The cut line itself is the score that a player must have or be above in order to stay and continue competing.
How Is The Cut Line Determined?
If you qualify for a tournament, you have to play during the work week hours, which include both Thursday and Friday. Both of these work week days are used to determine the rankings going into the tournaments. After two rounds, the typical standard cut line for a PGA golf tournament is the score of the 65th lowest scoring player or professional. If you finish at that score or better, you are considered good enough to stay and continue competing. There is also what is called a 54-hole cut. This is when a higher cut line is used after 36 holes, and when more than 78 of the players qualify for the next round of the tournament, a second cut will occur at 54 holes. This cut determines who ends up playing in the final round to be the champion of the tournament.
Cut Lines For Different Tournaments
The final cut for the 2022 Players Championship was +2, with only 71 golfers making it to the third round of the tournament. Since there were only 72 holes in the entire tournament, the cut line was the top 65 players. On the PGA Tour, one of the most popular golf tournaments globally, the European Tour, and the Korn Ferry Tour, the cut line is to the top 65 players, while on the LPGA Tour, the cut line is to the top 70 players. Each tour or tournament sets its own cut line depending on the number of participants and the level of competition.
Why do Golf Tournaments Have Cut Lines?
There are two main reasons golf tournaments have cut lines. The first is field control, and the second is to fulfill a specific format. The first reason, field control, is because golf tournaments start out with hundreds of participants. Due to this, people are usually grouped into groups of three for the first two rounds. After these two rounds, it becomes more obvious who is good enough to make it to the finals or who has a better chance than the ones who don’t. By cutting the field down, the organizers of the tournament can get a better understanding of the players with a chance to win or ones that can finish well. Fulfilling a specific format is when there is an exact set number of cuts that need to be made for a tournament.