Justin Thomas has returned to form on the PGA TOUR this season, but he’s still searching for his peak form in major championships.

Thomas finished his U.S. Open at 12-over 152, five strokes outside the cut line at brutish Oakmont Country Club in western Pennsylvania. Thomas carded back-to-back rounds of 76 to miss the U.S. Open cut for the third consecutive year.

“It sucks,” Thomas said after his second round.

Thomas wasn’t the only big name who failed to advance to the weekend at the 125th U.S. Open, where just three players stood under par through 36 holes and the cut line settled at 7-over 147. Other notables to finish outside the cut line included Ludvig Åberg, Patrick Cantlay and Wyndham Clark (8-over), Min Woo Lee and Tommy Fleetwood (9-over), Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Akshay Bhatia (10-over), Sepp Straka and Nick Dunlap (11-over), Justin Rose (14-over), and Shane Lowry (17-over).

That’s a laundry list of big names and major champions who won’t be around Saturday or Sunday at Oakmont, where Sam Burns leads at 3-under 137, one stroke ahead of J.J. Spaun and two clear of Viktor Hovland. The top 60 players and ties advanced to the weekend at the U.S. Open, and the cut line was projected at 6-over for most of Friday afternoon before moving to 7-over in the final two hours of competition (the second round was suspended at 8:15 p.m. ET due to lightning and nearby storms, with 13 players remaining on the course). This marked the highest U.S. Open cut line since 2018 (Shinnecock Hills, 8-over 148), as Oakmont’s thick rough, slick greens and diabolical hole locations tested players’ patience and skill sets across the opening two rounds.

All players inside the cut line will enter the weekend within 10 strokes of the lead and have a conceivable chance to win the U.S. Open. One player with the requisite firepower to make such a rally is Thomas – but he won’t be around to try.

Thomas entered the week at No. 4 on the TOUR’s season-long FedExCup standings and at No. 5 on the Official World Golf Ranking – but he has yet to contend in a major championship in 2025. He finished T36 at the Masters and missed the cut at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow (where he won his first of two major titles at the 2017 PGA Championship). Overall, Thomas has notched just one top-25 finish in his last 13 major starts, a concerning run that belies his elite abilities; he’s a 16-time PGA TOUR winner who is considered one of modern-era golf’s great shot makers.

“Just wasn’t sharp at all,” Thomas said Friday. “I felt like I really didn’t play that bad yesterday; I had four tee balls that were 50-50 in the air of being in the fairway or not, and all four of them were not, and played those holes 5-over, so that can happen out there. I was very far from sharp and just didn’t play well … (Oakmont is) right in front of you. You kind of know what you’re getting here. It’s tough, and you can’t fake it around here and not play well and expect good things to happen.��

Thomas was undone at Oakmont by two double bogeys in a five-hole stretch early in his second round (Nos. 12 and 16), that dampened his chances of playing the weekend. He was often stuck in Oakmont’s thick rough across two rounds, hitting just 12 of 28 fairways, which in turn limited his birdie opportunities.

Thomas, who ranks second on TOUR in birdie average, made just two birdies across his first 27 holes at Oakmont. He added three birdies on his final nine Friday, Oakmont’s front nine, but those were countered by three bogeys. Thomas hasn’t finished better than tied for eighth at the U.S. Open in 11 appearances overall, a modest statistic that contradicts his lofty expectations for himself. At age 32, he should have plenty more chances to contend at his national open – but he’s not getting any younger, and he realizes that.

Thomas has plenty left to play for in 2025 – including The Open Championship at Royal Portrush and the season-long FedExCup title – and his strong overall form would suggest that he can get back into contention in the near future, maybe as soon as next week’s Travelers Championship, the TOUR’s final Signature Event of the year.

But this one will sting.

“I’m frustrated because I feel like I should be playing way better in majors, but I haven’t, so clearly I need to do something differently,” Thomas said. “It’s easy to be bummed or not too positive at the moment, but I’ve had a really solid year and played really well.”