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21-year-old Aldrich Potgieter is taken on a vastly experienced and accomplished field at Aronimink Golf Club, and keeping them at bay. While he is dominating one end of the leaderboard, the other end is packed with some huge names who won’t be playing the 2026 PGA Championship beyond today’s round. Let’s see the five big players who missed the cut in the second major of the season.

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Bryson DeChambeau

In the last couple of years, Bryson DeChambeau has come very close to lifting the Wanamaker Trophy. He finished second to Xander Schauffele after ending up one stroke behind him at Valhalla Golf Course. A year later, it was Scottie Scheffler who beat him by five strokes to bag his third major win. However, the LIV Golf pro couldn’t improve on or even replicate the same result this time around.

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Instead, he had an absolutely miserable time at Aronimink Golf Club this week. He had already expressed concerns about the golf course being a bit challenging. While DeChambeau did state that he knew “how to play it,” the truth was, he didn’t.

He crumbled under pressure in both rounds of the event. He shot a 6-over 76 in the first round. After 9 holes on Friday, he was already 3-over par. With the cutline close to +3, it was nearly impossible for DeChambeau to recover from that point on. He was on the verge of missing the cut in the PGA Championship for the first time since 2019.

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Tommy Fleetwood

The last time Tommy Fleetwood had a top-10 finish in the PGA Championship was way back in 2022. He finished at T5, 2 strokes behind Justin Thomas. But the Englishman has struggled in the major ever since. Twice in his last three attempts, he has scored over par, but none of those appearances ended in a missed cut. However, it was different this time around.

With a 5-over par on the leaderboard, Fleetwood fell just 1 stroke short of making the cutline. He is missing the weekend rounds for the first time since 2021. But he would have expected that after only being able to score one birdie in 36 holes across two days at the Aronimink Golf Club.

Viktor Hovland

The Norwegian pro, Viktor Hovland, would have hoped for a better performance in Pennsylvania this week. He had finished in the top three twice in the last three times he played this major. The 28-year-old also managed to nearly win it in 2023 after finishing two strokes behind Brooks Koepka.

However, this wasn’t the year he could have delivered a similar caliber of performance. He had a roller-coaster of a time at the Aronimink Golf Club. He scored seven birdies and thirteen bogeys in 36 holes. As diverse as his stats were, the numbers didn’t favor his chances of making the weekend rounds.

He finished with a 6-over par across two rounds to miss the cut. This was the first time in his seven appearances in the PGA Championship that Hovland missed the cut.

Keegan Bradley

Keegan Bradley’s time at Aronimink Golf Club wasn’t nearly as chaotic as that of Viktor Hovland. He had fewer errors and even fewer positives to take from the event. But the 2011 PGA Championship winner still had a similar finish.

Bradley managed a 6-over par in 36 holes and will not be moving ahead in the tournament anymore. This is Bradley’s first missed cut in the PGA Championship since 2020. It’s also only the third time he isn’t playing on the weekend in the major.

Billy Horschel

Going into the Aronimink Golf Club, Billy Horschel would have hoped to get a good finish. After getting a T8 finish in the major last year, he had the confidence to improve on that. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen this time around.

Horschel had a poor first round of 4-over par. With 4 more holes to play on Friday, he had added another 4 strokes to the leaderboard. That took his score to +8, 4 strokes away from the cutline.

He is on the verge of missing the cut in the PGA Championship this year. With only a few more holes left for him to play, Horschel will be preparing to exit the tournament soon.

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Molin Sheth

2,138 Articles

Molin Sheth is a senior Golf writer at EssentiallySports and a key member of the ES Golf Trends Desk. He brings strong editorial judgment and a data-driven approach to uncovering the game’s overlooked angles, delivering insightful play-by-play reporting across golf’s four major championships. As part of the EssentiallySports Journalistic Excellence Program, an in-house initiative that mentors and develops writers through expert guidance and rigorous training, Molin works closely with industry-leading mentors to bring clarity and depth to a sport where precision matters and every shot tells a story.

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Riya Singhal

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