Golf doesn’t usually hand out this much bad news in one weekend, let alone across two continents at once. Six players chasing history or riding hot streaks collided with two brutal courses at Lytham and Detroit, and all six ended up on the outside looking in before the weekend even started.

What ties them together isn’t bad luck so much as bad timing. History and hot streaks got them here, and neither meant much once the card got torn up.

AIG Women’s Open — Royal Lytham & St Annes

1. Minjee Lee

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Lee shot 75-74 to finish at 149, seven over and three shots outside the number. She came into the week needing just one more major, this one or the Chevron, to complete the career Grand Slam, a chase that’s dragged through a genuinely rough season. This wasn’t a one-off, either. She’d already missed the cut at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and the Amundi Evian Championship earlier this year, then withdrew from last week’s Women’s Scottish Open with an injury after carding an 85. It’s her third missed major weekend of 2026, a stark comedown from a 2025 where she made 21 of 22 cuts. Royal Lytham hasn’t usually been the problem; she’s got five top-10s here, including a third-place finish at Troon back in 2020 and a T13 last year. This time a quadruple-bogey 7 on the par-3 11th during round one did most of the damage, and she couldn’t claw it back over the next 27 holes. The Grand Slam waits another year, with the CPKC Women’s Open next on the schedule.

2. Megan Khang

Khang also finished at 149, carding 74-75 to miss by three shots. Grouped early with Min-sol Kim and Patty Tavatanakit, she ran into trouble at the exact same spot as Lee, a triple-bogey 6 on the par-3 11th in round one that turned a manageable card into a costly one. This isn’t unfamiliar territory for her at this event specifically. She missed the cut here in 2024 at St Andrews too, part of a stretch where she missed four of five majors that year. She’d looked to be turning a corner with a T21 at last year’s Chevron, so this snaps some of that momentum rather than fitting a totally new pattern. She heads toward the CPKC Women’s Open looking to clean up that kind of number the next time she’s in contention.

3. Grace Kim

Kim posted 75-77 for a 152 total, ten over par and six shots outside the number — the widest margin of the three. This marks her second major missed cut of the summer; she also failed to make the weekend defending her Amundi Evian Championship title earlier this season. A 77 in round two wiped out what had been a decent start, the sort of number where bad weather and shaken confidence probably fed off each other. This is her second missed major weekend of the summer, and stretches like that tend to leave a mark on however the rest of the season plays out. She’ll want to find some answers before teeing it up at the CPKC Women’s Open and the Kroger Queen City Championship.

Rocket Classic — Detroit Golf Club

1. Wyndham Clark

The reigning U.S. Open champion missed the second cut in a row. He carded a 71-74 en route to a 5-over for the tournament and missed the cut by eight shots. Clark lost almost two strokes in driving and over three strokes in iron play. In the 147-player field, the two-time major winner ranked 143rd in SG: Approach to Green. The result was evident on the 14th hole. His approach shot landed in the native area, but his ball couldn’t be found. He carded a double bogey on that hole. Clark’s FedExCup Playoffs chances are secure however. He ranks 4th.

2. Chris Gotterup

Gotterup opened with a 68 but couldn’t back it up, adding a 73 for a 141 total, one over and four shots outside the cut line, the roughest miss of the three at Detroit. What makes it sting is the company he’d been keeping: he was one of only 14 players in the world to make the cut at all four men’s majors in 2026, a group that includes Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy. He’d also never missed a cut in three prior Rocket Classic starts, and he arrived off a win at the John Deere Classic and back-to-back top-20s. None of that carried into round two, where the wheels came off just enough to erase the good start. With the regular season winding down, it’s a rough week to lose ground in the FedEx Cup race.

4. Akshay Bhatia

Bhatia posted a 68-71 for a 139 total, one under and just two shots outside a crowded cut line. He’d already gone home early at The Open the week before, and inconsistency has dogged him all season despite obvious talent. He’s got eight finishes of T17 or better this year and a win at the Arnold Palmer back in March, and Detroit hasn’t been a stranger to him either. He finished T2 here in 2024 and co-led through 54 holes that week. What did him in this time was a triple-bogey 7 on the par-4 7th in round two, a hole a late birdie at 15 couldn’t quite make up for. Two missed cuts at big events in a row is a different problem than one bad Friday, and he’ll need to fix it before the playoffs arrive.

4. Ben Griffin

Griffin posted 68-70 for a 138 total, two under par, missing by one shot. Like Gotterup, he had played the Rocket Classic three times without ever missing a weekend, averaging a 25.7 finish in those starts, and he came in on a run of nine cuts made in his last ten starts overall, with an average finish of 21.1 and two top-3s in that stretch — his putting had been the strength carrying him. Two clean-looking rounds in the high 60s simply weren’t low enough on a week where the cut line came in tight. It’s a genuine outlier against his recent consistency, and he’ll be looking to shake it off quickly with FedEx Cup positioning on the line.

What’s Next

So which is it, bad week or bad sign? That answer arrives fast. Lee, Khang and Kim get almost no time to find out, with the CPKC Women’s Open right around the corner and majors having a way of separating a blip from a pattern. Gotterup, Bhatia and Griffin have it worse: the Rocket Classic landed right at the edge of the regular season, so their next results get read against FedEx Cup points, not just pride. History and hot streaks got all six here in the first place. Now it’s just about who turns the page fastest.