PGA Championship cut line: Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson headed home after early struggles

Rory McIlroy’s putter may be the reason Rory McIlroy won’t be playing the weekend at Baltusrol but it was his typically solid iron and wedge play that let him down at the end and had him on an early flight out of New Jersey on Friday.

Needing at least a par on the final hole of Friday’s second round to avoid missing his second major cut of the season, McIlroy flew the green with his approach shot and proceeded to chunk his way to a bogey-6 and a 3-over for 36 holes.

Meanwhile, playing partner Phil Mickelson’s second round appeared to be over almost before it began when he hit his first tee shot of the day waaaay out of bounds off No. 1.

But that’s when the competitor from his epic final-round duel with Henrik Stenson at the British Open returned. Shaking off body language to which a dejected McIlroy during his miserable 4-over first round could relate, Mickelson bounced back, draining a 25-footer for birdie on No. 3.

Three birdies and 11 holes later, Mickelson had rebounded completely from the haymaker the first hole landed on him. Four total birdies and two bogies got him to 70 and 1-over for the tournament on a day when the cut line ping-ponged between 1- and 2-over, finally settling at 2-over.

Good enough for the popular Lefty to earn a Saturday tee time.

Not so for McIlroy, who tried to climb back from the brink of oblivion when he holed his first birdie of the tournament on the par-3 fourth.

With his putter on the fritz, McIlroy was no doubt pleased to end his 21-hole birdie-less streak.

A tap-in for another birdie two holes later put the oddsmakers’ early pick to win the event right on the early projected cut line at 2-over. After Mickelson’s birdie attempt on the par-3 ninth lipped out, however, McIlroy’s par putt went wide left and he dropped back to 3-over.

And so it went for the fourth-ranked player, who seemed to enter “yips” territory when he whiffed on a three-foot birdie effort after stuffing his tee shot on the par-3 16th.

“I’m not sure that it’s possible to hit the ball good enough to overcome poor putting in a major championship,” swing analyst Peter Kostis observed on TNT about McIlroy, who was 151st out of 156 in strokes gained putting after 36 holes, according to PGATour.com stats.

Except not so fast, Peter. McIlroy’s knees may knock on those short ones, but a curling 33-footer for birdie on 17 was almost enough to get him into the weekend on the number. That final hole, though.

McIlroy was not alone in his misery. Dustin Johnson, another favorite to capture the Wanamaker Trophy, was never in it. A nightmarish opening-round 77 sealed the deal for the reigning U.S.Open champion, who entered the week riding high and filled with confidence.

The PGA Tour’s leading ball basher carded a more respectable 72 on Friday but he and his 8-over were long gone before afternoon-wavers Mickelson and McIlroy (playing with hard-charging world No. 1 Jason Day — 7-under and T3 after a blistering 65 on Friday) took the field.

Not missing the cut was Colt Knost, the hard-luck victim of a major screw-up by the PGA of America, which issued Knost and his playing partners the wrong pin sheet before the start of their second round. There’s no guarantee Knost would have scored better than the bogey-5 he made on his first hole, No. 10, but having incorrect pin data sure could not have helped. The steamed 31-year-old ended up making the cut on the number.

With rounds of 70 and 69, cult hero Andrew “Beef” Johnston easily made it to the weekend at 1-under. Arby’s will be very pleased.

The top 70 players plus ties make the cut at the PGA. Here is a look which players missed the cut at Baltusrol:

T87 - Scott Piercy - 3-over
T87 - Y.E. Yang - 3-over
T87 - Luke Donald - 3-over
T87 - Chris Kirk - 3-over
T87 - Chris Wood - 3-over
T87 - Victor Dubuisson - 3-over
T87 - Rory McIlroy - 3-over
T87 - Ryan Helminen (CP) - 3-over
T87 - Smylie Kaufman - 3-over
T96 - Harold Varner III - 4-over
T96 - Thorbjorn Olesen - 4-over
T96 - Brendan Steele - 4-over
T96 - Byeong Hun An - 4-over
T96 - Si Woo Kim - 4-over
T96 - J.B. Holmes - 4-over
T96 - Vijay Singh - 4-over
T96 - Rikard Karlberg - 4-over
T96 - Rod Perry (CP) - 4-over
T96 - Zac Blair - 4-over
T106 - Kevin Chappell - 5-over
T106 - Gary Woodland - 5-over
T106 - Shane Lowry - 5-over
T106 - Sergio Garcia - 5-over
T106 - Ben Polland (CP) - 5-over
T106 - Bryce Molder - 5-over
T106 - Kevin Streelman - 5-over
T106 - Jason Bohn - 5-over
T106 - Matt Dobyns (CP) - 5-over
T106 - Darren Clarke - 5-over
T106 - Charley Hoffman - 5-over
T117 - Rich Berberian Jr. (CP) - 6-over
T117 - Anirban Lahiri - 6-over
T117 - Matt Kuchar - 6-over
T117 - Bernd Wiesberger - 6-over
T117 - Peter Malnati - 6-over
T117 - Mark R. Brown (CP) - 6-over
T117 - Kristoffer Broberg - 6-over
T117 - Jonas Blixt - 6-over
T125 - Rob Labritz (CP) - 7-over
T125 - David Toms - 7-over
T125 - Tony Finau - 7-over
T125 - Soomin Lee - 7-over
T125 - Brian Gaffney (CP) - 7-over
T125 - John Daly - 7-over
T125 - Jamie Lovemark - 7-over
T125 - Greg Chalmers - 7-over
T125 - David Muttitt (CP) - 7-over
T134 - Michael Block (CP) - 8-over
T134 - Johan Kok (CP) - 8-over
T134 - Fabian Gomez - 8-over
T134 - Jim Herman - 8-over
T134 - K.T. Kim - 8-over
T134 - Jeunghun Wang - 8-over
T134 - Josh Speight (CP) - 8-over
T134 - Nicolas Colsaerts - 8-over
T142 - Joe Summerhays (CP) - 9-over
T142 - Troy Merritt - 9-over
T142 - Rocco Mediate - 9-over
T142 - Dustin Johnson - 9-over
T142 - Graeme McDowell - 9-over
T147 - Brandon Stone - 10-over
T147 - Mitch Lowe (CP) - 10-over
T147 - Tommy Sharp (CP) - 10-over
T147 - Omar Uresti (CP) - 10-over
T151 - Shaun Micheel - 11-over
T151 - Brad Ott (CP) - 11-over
153 - Wyatt Worthington II (CP) - 12-over
T154 - James Morrison - 14-over
T154 - Rick Schuller (CP) - 14-over
156 - Brad Lardon (CP) - 17-over