6 surprising players who missed cut at 2026 Players Championship 

Shane Lowry knew it the second he let it fly on the 18th hole on Thursday.

The 2019 Open Champion tried to will his ball to move right and miss the water, but he quickly gave up that fruitless endeavor and watched it splash down, becoming the 1,000th tee shot hit into the water on TPC Sawgrass’ finishing hole since 2003.

Lowry was at even par when he arrived at the 18th tee on Thursday. He walked off at 4-over par following a quadruple bogey and never recovered.

The 2025 Ryder Cup hero was a popular pick at this week’s Players Championship. He nearly won the Cognizant Classic two weeks ago before he imploded late to hand the trophy to Nico Echavarria. He has five top-20s in 10 appearances at TPC Sawgrass and loves playing golf in Florida.

But this was not Lowry’s week. That quadruple bogey sent him down the leaderboard, and he was unable to climb out of that hole on Friday.

Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy barely made the cut. Ludvig Aberg and Xander Schauffele are atop the board. Most of the PGA Tour’s big names have a Saturday tee time, but Lowry leads our list of notables who will not play the weekend at TPC Sawgrass.

Notable players who missed the cut at the Players Championship

Honorable mention: Collin Morikawa

Morikawa was one of the pre-tournament favorites and for good reason. He won at Pebble Beach and followed that up with a T7 at the Genesis and a runner-up at the API. But Morikawa tweaked his back on his second hole on Thursday and had to withdraw. Had he played 36 holes, he’d top this list. But since it’s injury-related, he just gets an honorable mention to start us off.

6. Joel Dahmen

What he shot: 77-73

Notable because: He has been playing good golf when he has gotten into the field. Dahmen missed the cut at brutally difficult Bay Hill, but posted top-10s at the Farmers and Cognizant to start the season. His golf has been solid, but a first-round 77 spelled the end for him at TPC Sawgrass.

5. Kurt Kitayama

What he shot: 74-75

Notable because: Kitayama came in playing good golf. He backed up a T2 at Riviera with a top-20 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, but never got going this week at Sawgrass.

4. Jake Knapp

What he shot: 75-72

Notable because: Knapp has been playing excellent golf to start the year. He went T11-T5-T8-T8-6 across his first five starts of the season, including an impressive showing at the Genesis Invitational. But he was a late WD from last week’s Arnold Palmer and clearly didn’t have his best stuff this week.

3. Harris English

What he shot: 73-77

Notable because: The No. 16-ranked player in the world hadn’t missed a cut since last year’s API. English had finished no worse than T28 in six starts this season before this week. The quadruple bogey 8 he made on the 18th hole (his ninth of the day) on Friday spelled the end of his tournament.

2. Ben Griffin

What he shot: 70-78

Notable because: Griffin was one of the hottest players on the PGA Tour last year. He won two individual events, won the team event at the Zurich Classic, came in second at the Memorial and made the Ryder Cup team. His play has tailed off to start the year. His best finish is a T19 at the Sony Open, and he’s losing strokes off the tee and on approach.

1. Shane Lowry

What he shot: 76-73

Notable because: Lowry was three holes from winning two weeks ago at the Cognizant and looked to be back to top form. He imploded and now has missed two cuts in a row. Lowry has had success at TPC Sawgrass in the past, but a quadruple bogey to finish his first round put him behind the eight ball, and he couldn’t recover on Friday.