HONOLULU — The PGA Tour season’s first full-field tournament also means its first 36-hole cut of the year, and it was a doozy.
All the same feels coming down the stretch on Friday with Joel Dahmen holding the weekend fate of 17 golfers who needed him to miss a 5-foot birdie putt at No. 9 or else they were all going home. He burned the right edge, saying afterward, “I hit a good putt. They should all give me money.”
Or maybe at least buy him a drink. It took a 36-hole aggregate of 2-under 138 at Waialae Country Club to make the cut at the Sony Open in Hawaii. Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, the 2022 champ here, made birdie at his final two holes to make the weekend while Lanto Griffin made birdie at his last to join him. In all, 82 players have a weekend tee time, the most of any 36-hole cut on Tour since the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic (84). Just seven strokes separate first and worst.
Here’s more on some of the players for whom aloha means goodbye.
Sahith Theegala (1 under)
Sahith Theegala nearly won The Sentry last week, finishing second to Chris Kirk at 28 under. This week, he didn’t have it, making four bogeys in a six-hole stretch and shooting 2-over 72 on Thursday. He battled back to post 3-under 67 on Friday, but it wasn’t enough to make the cut.
Theegala’s driver was erratic. He was dead last in the field on Friday, hitting just three fairways and ranked 140th out of 144 with 10 fairways through two rounds.
Lucas Glover (1 under)
Lucas Glover missed the cut at Sony Open for the second straight year after shooting 71-68. Glover also missed his first cut since the 3M Open in July.
A bogey at 17 sealed his fate.
Zach Johnson (even-par)
Zach Johnson, the 2019 Sony champion, is used to playing the weekend at Waialae. This was his 19th career start here and he has cashed a check 14 times, but not this year. He shot 67-72 to miss the cut. It marked his fourth straight missed cut dating to last season’s Wyndham Championship.
Matt Fitzpatrick (even-par)
Playing in the Sony Open for the first time, Matt Fitzpatrick shot 69-71 and missed the cut.
The Englishman failed to find the fairway with any consistency, hitting just 11 of 28 (T-133) and had a particularly bad putting day on Friday, losing more than 2 ½ strokes to the field on the greens.
Matt Kuchar (1 over)
Matt Kuchar, who won the Sony in 2019, missed the cut for the ninth time in 19 career starts in the event. He shot 68-73. On Friday, he made three straight bogeys beginning at No. 13 to derail his round and didn’t make a birdie until his final hole of the day at No. 9.
His short game did him in this week as he ranked No. 132 in Strokes Gained: Around the Green.
Gary Woodland (2 over)
Gary Woodland returned this week to the PGA Tour after having brain surgery in September. That alone made Woodland the story of the week.
“There was a time where I didn’t know if this was going to be possible,” he said.
He shot a pair of 71s to miss the cut but that was besides the point.
Woodland hit just 12 of 28 fairways (T-122) and only got up and down around the green on 4 of 10 attempts (T-129). He said he would go home and try to iron out a few wrinkles in his game and be back for the Farmers Insurance Open in two weeks.
“Focus was amazing. Best focus I’ve had in a year. Best energy I’ve in had in a year on a golf course,” he said. “Obviously you never want to miss the cut, never want to be out of contention, but it was bigger for me this week than golf.
“Golf game was rusty. Saw a lot of good things, but I was rusty scoring-wise.”
Will Zalatoris (5 over)
Will Zalatoris struggled in his first official start on the PGA Tour since March, shooting 76-69 to miss the cut.
He looked rusty after his long layoff when he played at the Hero World Challenge and finished last in the 20-man field. On Thursday, he ranked 129th out of 144 in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee and 143rd in SG: Putting (-4.295).
Friday was better as he improved on the greens (+0.159).
After shooting 76, Zalatoris could have been deflated but he was not. Instead, he signed up for next week’s American Express to keep working on his game and try to play his way into upcoming signature events.
Kevin Kisner (6 over)
Kevin Kisner stepped down from the broadcast booth, where he made his debut at The Sentry, and back inside the ropes at the Sony, but it wasn’t the smoothest of transitions. He shot 75-71 at a course where he finished T-3 in 2022 and hadn’t missed the cut since 2014.
