ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Cut day brings both joy and misery to the field of 156 that began on Thursday with a chance of hoisting the Wanamaker Trophy.
Some such as Tyrrell Hatton, who bounced back from an opening-round 77 with a 68, and world No. 4 Patrick Cantlay (74-67) have renewed faith that they can continue to vault up the leaderboard and join the trophy hunt. Harold Varner III was on the cutline after a double bogey at No. 11 and responded brilliantly. He closed with five consecutive threes on the card, four of them birdies, and is back in the mix at 1 over. Defending champion Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth, who is seeking to complete the career Grand Slam with a win, both needed to sink 8-foot putts to make the cut and they drained them. In all 76 golfers made it to the weekend at 5-over 145 or better.
But for the men on this list, the chase is over and they’re none too happy about it. A couple of them blew up, shooting 80, while another made bogey at the last to have the weekend off. Here’s the bad news for some of the best in the world who didn’t have their good stuff this week.