World number one Scottie Scheffler will head to Royal Birkdale as the favourite for the 2026 Open Championship. It is a rare occurrence these days for him not to start a tournament as the man to beat. Yet this Open will also mark the first event in a long time where Scheffler does not arrive boasting the longest run of consecutive cuts made, among the current players.
In other words, at long last, Scottie missed the cut! The Scottish Open, played at the links course, the Renaissance Club, is contested the week before The Open itself. It is seen by players as the perfect chance to fine-tune their links game and give themselves the best chance possible of landing a major a week later.
It is safe to say that things didn’t exactly go to plan for the man who is set to defend his Open crown, having triumphed at Royal Portrush in 2025. Even the best players have off days, or even two off days in a row. But for so long, it seemed that Scheffler was different. Not so: Scheffler is human after all!
Back to Zero After 78 Consecutive Cuts
Scheffler has a huge lead at the top of the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR). His points average is more than the total of the world number three (Matt Fitzpatrick) and four (Cameron Young) combined. One missed cut will not alter that much, but it was undoubtedly a huge shock when the New Jersey-born ace finally missed a cut.
Of course, all runs come to an end one way or another, but some may have begun to wonder whether only death or retirement could finally stop Scheffler’s streak. As it turned out, it was simply a slight underperformance at the Scottish Open.
After his two rounds, he was on 140 (even par), with the cut set at minus two. That meant that after making it to the weekend in 78 PGA Tour events in a row, Scottie’s incredible streak was finally broken. His last missed cut was almost four years earlier. It came at the 2022 FedEx St Jude Championship in August; this run is further proof of the incredible consistency of a remarkable player.
Perhaps more amazing than nearly four years without a missed cut is that he had not finished outside the top 25 since the BMW Championship in 2024. That was almost two years ago.
Cut Streaks
With Scheffler having failed to make the weekend in North Berwick, the baton passes to world number three Matt Fitzpatrick. He is playing the best golf of his life at the moment and is well fancied to land a second major at The Open after his 2022 US Open victory.
He is at a career high in the OWGR and tied for fourth at Portrush last year. He has also won three of his five PGA Tour titles in 2026. But it is his consistency that we will focus on here, with the Sheffield native now the player to have made the most cuts in a row.
With Scheffler’s run having ended at an impressive 78, Fitzpatrick’s 28 consecutive tournaments without a missed cut is the best on tour. It is obviously well short of the old benchmark but is still exceptional, and there does not seem to be any sign of the Ryder Cup man stopping soon.
However, Fitzpatrick will have to continue making the weekend for another seven years or so if he is to break one of the most incredible records in golf. Jack Nicklaus is likely to win the debate about the golfing GOAT thanks to his record 18 major championships. But not even the Golden Bear came particularly close to Tiger Woods’ cut streak record.
Tiger’s Record May Never Be Beaten
| Player | Consecutive Cuts Made |
|---|---|
| Tiger Woods | 142 |
| Byron Nelson | 113 |
| Jack Nicklaus | 105 |
| Hale Irwin | 86 |
| Scottie Scheffler | 78 |
Woods, the player most experts view as Nicklaus’ only real rival in terms of the all-time debate, made 142 cuts in a row. That’s not too far off twice Scheffler’s streak and considerably more than Scheffler and Fitzpatrick’s current marks combined.
Tiger lacked the longevity of Nicklaus, due to injury and personal issues, but at his best, he was close to unbeatable. In 2000 and into 2001, he won all four majors in a row and had four separate years where he won two or more of the big four tournaments.
His 142-event streak began when he had just one major to his name, though, coming after his 1997 Masters romp (he won by a yawning 12 shots!) and starting at the 1998 Buick Invitational. He did not miss a cut for the rest of the season. Or the six whole seasons after that.
His run ended on the 13th of May 2005 at the Byron Nelson. He had a 15-foot putt on the 36th hole to scrape through to the weekend but just missed, ending one of sport’s most amazing runs. Back then, it was Ernie Els who took over, just 122 cuts behind Woods’ mark.
It is worth noting that all of these records are based on events played without missing a cut (even if we have said “cuts made”). This is because Woods, like all players on the list below, played a number (31, to be exact) of events that did not feature a cut.