Extends streak to 59 consecutive made cuts, most on TOUR since Tiger Woods from 1998-2005

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Xander Schauffele won’t throw a parade for making a cut – his aspirations are far greater – but he wanted this one.

Schauffele entered THE PLAYERS Championship on a streak of 58 straight made cuts, the longest such streak since Tiger Woods’ historic run (142 straight) that spanned from 1998 to 2005. He extended that streak in narrow fashion Friday afternoon, finishing at 1-under 143 to make the cut squarely on the number at TPC Sawgrass’ THE PLAYERS Stadium Course.

Schauffele finished in a tie for 65th at 1-under; the top 65 and ties advanced to the weekend at the 51st PLAYERS Championship. Schauffele extended his streak with zero wiggle room; at one point Friday afternoon, the projected cut line moved to 2-under, with 65 players at 2-under or better. But Alejandro Tosti played his final 10 holes in 6-over to finish two strokes off the cut line, which helped to slide the line back to 1-under (Tosti stood 5-under for the tournament with 10 holes to play Friday). Danny Walker also helped Schauffele’s cause, missing a 5-footer for par at his final hole and finishing at 1-under 143. Had either Tosti or Walker (or any player at 1-under) finished at 2-under or better, the cut line would have been 2-under.

Other players who made the cut on the number at 1-under 143 included Daniel Berger, Tom Kim and Shane Lowry. Notables to miss the cut included Hideki Matsuyama (even par), Ludvig Åberg (2-over), Viktor Hovland (4-over), Max Homa (6-over) and Tony Finau (8-over).

Schauffele hasn’t missed a cut on the PGA TOUR since the 2022 Masters, but his streak was in jeopardy as he played the final few holes Friday at TPC Sawgrass (THE PLAYERS Stadium Course). He arrived at the twisting, tree-cloaked par-5 ninth, his final hole of the day, at even par for the tournament, needing a birdie (as it turned out) to advance to the weekend.

Schauffele smoked a 267-yard second shot to 51 feet and two-putted for a closing birdie, posting 1-under 143. As of 2 p.m. ET, he stood T55 with the afternoon wave beginning its second round, in good shape to advance to the weekend but not yet a sure thing.

“I was thinking about the cut line for sure,” Schauffele said of his final hole. “Knew I needed to make birdie. … (The wind) was luckily helping off the right, so just kind of turned over a hybrid, aimed on the right side, kind of right of the green, and may have pulled it a hair, but figured if I can hit it somewhere up there on the right side in the rough that's kind of the place to get up-and-down from, and luckily hit the green.”

THE PLAYERS marked Schauffele’s second consecutive start in his return from a rib injury; he also grinded to make the cut at last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, en route to a T40 finish.

Schauffele wasn’t in a mood to give himself any grace in his comeback; he expects to be closer to the top of the leaderboard than the cut line, even at this stage in his progression.

Through two rounds at THE PLAYERS, Schauffele ranked 29th (of 144 players) in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee but just 69th in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green, well below the standards of the world’s second-ranked player.

“Really bad,” Schauffele described his play this week. “Just not very good. … Not hitting it close enough, to duffing chips, to missing every fairway, to hitting fairways to missing greens. It's pretty gross, to be completely honest. So if I can eke out this cut, that would be nice. But the game feels pretty bad.”

Any chance he’s being hard on himself, he was asked?

“I almost missed the cut on what is a pretty easy course right now, so I don't think so,” he said.

This marked Schauffele’s seventh career start at THE PLAYERS Championship. In six prior starts, he has notched two runner-up finishes (2018 and 2024) but also missed three cuts. He kept from a fourth missed cut in narrow fashion, with some late help from his TOUR peers.