What is the cut at PGA Championship?

The 156-player field at the 2025 PGA Championship will be cut to the top 70 and ties after 36 holes at Quail Hollow Club, and Rory McIlroy is among several big names outside the line into Friday's second round.

McIlroy opened in 3-over 74 at Quail Hollow Club, as the reigning Masters champ hit just four of 14 fairways and failed to develop a rhythm while grouped with fellow top-three players Scottie Scheffler (69) and Xander Schauffele (72). Through 18 holes at the 107th PGA Championship, the projected cut line stands at 1-over, with X players at 1-over 72 or better. McIlroy, a four-time winner of the TOUR's Truist Championship at Quail Hollow, needs a strong Friday effort to earn a weekend tee time at the venue deemed by Jordan Spieth as "Rory McIlroy Country Club."

Schauffele, squarely on the cut line into Friday, will look to maintain a TOUR-leading streak of 63 consecutive cuts made. This marks the longest such streak since Tiger Woods' record 142 consecutive cuts made, a streak that spanned from 1998 to 2005. Schauffele hasn't missed a cut since the 2022 Masters.

McIlroy isn't the only world top-10 player in serious jeopardy of missing the weekend in Charlotte. Last week's Truist Championship winner Sepp Straka and runners-up Shane Lowry and Justin Thomas each opened in 2-over 73 at Quail Hollow, one stroke off the projected cut line. Thomas, to his credit, rallied from a 4-over front nine to stay within striking distance of the number.

Other notables outside the projected cut line into Friday include Max Homa (73), Patrick Cantlay (74), three-time PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka (75), and Spieth (76). This marks Spieth's ninth PGA Championship appearance with a chance at completing the career Grand Slam, his 13th PGA Championship start overall.

Quail Hollow, which typically hosts the PGA TOUR’s Truist Championship, is hosting the PGA Championship for the first time since 2017. The Charlotte venue is playing to a par 71 this week at 7,626 yards. The PGA Championship features 72 holes of stroke-play competition.

At the 2017 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, 75 players made the cut at 5-over 147 or better. That year's PGA was contested in August.

The PGA Championship’s cut rule differs from a typical PGA TOUR Full-Field Event, in which the top 65 and ties after 36 holes qualify for the third and fourth rounds. The Masters field (95 players this year) is cut to the top 50 and ties after 36 holes. The U.S. Open field is cut to the top 60 and ties after 36 holes. The Open Championship uses the same format as the PGA Championship, with a cut to the top 70 and ties after 36 holes. THE PLAYERS Championship, like most PGA TOUR Full-Field Events, cuts to the top 65 and ties after 36 holes.

In the event of a tie for first place after 72 holes at the 2025 PGA Championship, there will be a three-hole aggregate score playoff on holes Nos. 16, 17 and 18 at Quail Hollow Club. If still tied, there will be a hole-by-hole playoff beginning on No. 18 and if still tied, Nos. 16, 17 and 18 repeated until there is a winner.

The PGA Championship became a stroke-play event in 1958 after using a match-play format for its first 39 iterations.