Is There a Cutline for the 2024 Open Championship: Exploring the Criteria That Will Determine the Players’ Fate at Royal Troon

Winds played the role of a villain on Thursday. After the strong wind gusts changed their direction in the opening round, in comparison to the practice day rounds at the Royal Troon, the competitors faced unexpected challenges that raised concerns for many players. Although the field will be cut only after the Friday round, the difficult playing conditions in the first round will have repercussions for the players.

Only seventeen players managed to score under par in the unpredictable weather conditions, with the English pro, Daniel Brown, leading the charge with a bogey-free score of 6 under 65. If these wind conditions persist, then it will surely have an impact on the cutline and who makes the cut.

After the second round, the field of 156 players will be cut to a low 70 and ties. Comparing the cutline of the 2024 Open Championship with the other majors of this year, the field of the PGA Championship also got cut down to the top 70 and ties in comparison to the lower cutline of the top 60 and ties in the US Open. Although the Masters tournament had a much lower cutline at the top 50 and ties, its field was also way smaller than the other majors, with only 89 players.

The players who are holding the 69th spot on the scorecard have scored a 3 over. With this, it is expected that the golf world will get to witness the highest cut score at the Open Championship since 2017. With the opening round’s conclusion, the prominent players who are at risk of missing the supposed cutline include the likes of Tiger Woods, who is 9 spots away from the cutline with a score of 8 over par.

Rory McIlroy is eight spots away from the 70th spot; Bryson DeChambeau, needs to make up at least six places on the leaderboard to make the cut, and Viktor Hovland, is five steps away from not making it to the moving day. One of the primary reasons for many big names’ adverse performance in the opening round is the weather. Will it affect them during the Friday round as well?

Will the weather wreak havoc at the Open Championship?

According to the weather reports for the Friday round, it is expected to begin with a cloudy cover and temperatures juggling between 59F and 63F. However, these conditions are expected to persist only until 10 a.m. BST, as after that, the rays of the almighty sun will grace the Scottish greens, and a little shift in the temperature range is also expected (63F–66F).

For the rest of the play, the sun is expected to witness the play with the possibility of drizzling as the precipitation chances are below 10% for the whole day. The southern winds are predicted to blow at a slight pace of 7 to 14 mph throughout the play. However, the major concern, the wind gusts, are expected to pose a challenge to the players once again, especially between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. BST. During this time, the wind gods could toy the winds at around 29–31 mph.

After upsetting so many players in the Thursday round, will the wind do the same on Friday? or will the competitors come prepared this time? What do you think?