The PGA TOUR tees off the second round of the 2023 3M Open on Friday, and the field should be cut in half
The first afternoon trios tee off on Friday at 1:10 p.m. ET, so it should be about 3 p.m. before we have a solid idea of what the final cut line should be. Of course many players will know they’re heading home after holing out on 18, while others from the morning session will have to sweat out the last shots of the day before knowing their status.
How is the cut line determined?
The cut line at 36 holes is the top 65 players plus those tied at the end of that group.
What is the projected cut line for the 3M Open as of now?
Update 10:15 p.m. With six players scheduled to finish their second round in the morning, the cut line will be -4. There are 74 players at -4 or better, 16 on the number exactly, and two of them are playing their 18th hole (the 9th on the course) tomorrow in S.Y. Noh and Kevin Tway. They’ll need par or better to advance.
Augusto Nunez is -5 and has one hole remaining (the 18th), and will need to avoid disaster to play the weekend. Scott Harrington at -3 has two holes left, and needs at least one birdie.
Update 6:30 p.m. With play suspended, and some players still with 12 holes to complete, we won’t have a final cut number until Saturday morning at earliest. But right now at DataGolf it’s 51.2% to be -4, and 46.8% to be -3. There are 62 players at -4 or better, and 24 more at -3 or better.
Either way, expect threesomes off both tees for Round 3 for post-cut play on Saturday.
Update 3:00 p.m. We’re still at -3, but with 73 golfers at that score or better as of now. 19 are on the number exactly, and that includes the defending champion in Tony Finau who plays the fifth hole as of now.
Mackenzie Hughes and Sungjae Im are both on Hole No. 4, and at -2 they’ll need some birdies coming home to play tomorrow.
Update 1:50 p.m. The cut has moved to -3, with exactly 65 players having a better score, and 19 of them on -3 exactly.
That’s bad news for Justin Thomas, Cameron Young, and Joel Dahmen, who are in the clubhouse at -2. Right now at DataGolf, -3 has a 46.8% chance of being the cut and -4 is actually the chalk at 51.2%. -2 has just a 1.1% chance of survival according to that model.
Right now the projected cut line is at -2, with 83 players on that number or better. But there are a whopping 23 at -2 exactly, making for what should be a wild finish with plenty of players swinging back and forth from a Saturday tee time and the airport.
Who is not projected to make the cut?
Gary Woodland at +4 thru 12 today is just playing out the string. Sepp Straka after a terrific Open Championship last week is at even par before his Day 2 starts, and he’ll need to find some birdies to stay around Saturday. Jimmy Walker has the first afternoon tee time, but at +2 the former major winner will need to go low to play the weekend.