While Shinnecock Hills Golf Club hasn’t been quite as ruthless as we’ve seen it in U.S. Opens in the past, it still has shown plenty of teeth and caused headaches for some of the best players in the world this week.
The top 60 and ties make it to the weekend at the U.S. Open, and this week that ultimately required a score of 4 over or better. After the first round of play, few would’ve projected Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau as players who could miss out on a weekend tee time, but LIV Golf’s top stars both had brutal Fridays that led to an early exit from the Southampton, New York.
For DeChambeau, it started early as he came back to finish his first round at 6:35 a.m. ET sitting at 1 under and promptly gave one back on his final hole, the 9th, to post an opening round 70. His second round got off to an inauspicious start as he made back-to-back double bogeys on the 3rd and 4th holes. His hopes of contending for a third U.S. Open title quickly faded away and he found himself spending another Friday battling the cut line.
Much like at the Masters and the PGA Championship, DeChambeau could not build any positive momentum in his second round and ultimately faded off the pace to shoot a 5-over 75. DeChambeau made three birdies in his round and two of them were sandwiched between bogeys or double bogeys, as each step forward quickly became another step back. For the third straight major championship and the fourth in his last five starts, DeChambeau missed the cut and will head to Royal Birkdale at risk of going 0-for-4 in making the weekend at a major championship in 2026.
2026 U.S. Open scores: Wyndham Clark grinds out another great round to open up big lead at Shinnecock Hills
Robby Kalland
He will have plenty of company in leaving Shinnecock Hills frustrated, including his LIV cohort Jon Rahm. The Spaniard was the only player to go bogey-free in his first round, coming back Friday morning to post five straight pars to get a 2-under 68 into the clubhouse. He didn’t make his first bogey of the tournament until his 22nd hole and while he stumbled to a first nine 37 to make the turn at even par overall, there was little reason to believe Rah, was in danger of the cut line.
But disaster struck in the middle of Rahm’s back nine. Frustrations built over missed putts and poorly executed shots and he melted down with four bogeys and a double in a five-hole stretch from No. 12 to No. 16 to eject not only out of contention but outside the cut line as well. Rahm could not get out of his own way on the back nine and by the time he doubled the par-5 16th, his tournament was over.
After a rough Masters, he turned things around with a runner-up finish at the PGA that seemed like he was getting back to his old self. A 68 in the first round only reinforced those feelings, but he undid all of that hard work on the back nine Friday afternoon to shoot a 78. He’ll be left to stew over a missed opportunity and wonder how it all went wrong so fast, as he went from the steadiest man on the course to an early flight home in record time.
Notable players to miss the cut at the 2026 U.S. Open
- Bryson DeChambeau (+5)
- Viktor Hovland (+5)
- Rickie Fowler (+5)
- Harris English (+5)
- Jon Rahm (+6)
- Shane Lowry (+6)
- Patrick Cantlay (+6)
- Si Woo Kim (+6)
- Sepp Straka (+7)
- J.J. Spaun (+8)
- Adam Scott (+8)
- Brooks Koepka (+10)
Joining DeChambeau and Rahm in an early exit were plenty of other notable names. Brooks Koepka also got off to a solid start on Thursday before it all turned wrong as he shot a 73 and then never got anything going in a 77 on Friday to miss the cut by a mile. The 2018 champion at Shinnecock Hills came in with a mysterious nerve issue that caused him to WD from the Canadian Open last week, and while he said he was back to full strength, he ran out of steam quickly this week and bowed out.
Defending champion J.J. Spaun had a brutal opening round and while he played solidly on Friday, it wasn’t enough to make it to the weekend. Viktor Hovland came in with some positive momentum finally after a good finish in Canada, but also struggled Thursday and couldn’t make it up in his second round. Misery loves company and that’s not hard to find after 36 holes in U.S. Open conditions at Shinnecock Hills, but on a week where scoring was possible, all of these players will feel like they missed an opportunity.
