Tiger Woods sneaks inside cut line late in the afternoon at the Memorial

While the untrained eye can get caught up in the talk at the top of the leaderboard, the real drama on Fridays on the PGA Tour comes around the cut line. One shot can be the difference between cashing a paycheck and slamming a trunk.

That age-old scoreboard-watching tradition was alive and well at Muirfield Village Friday afternoon. With the course drying out and conditions becoming more difficult by the hole, the cut line oscillated all afternoon, finally settling at 3-over. This late slide to 3-over allowed a number of notable names to survive to the weekend, among them Tiger Woods.

“I would like to have the opportunity to play tomorrow,” Woods said after his morning round. “Hopefully the cut will fall one more and I’ll have the opportunity.”

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Thanks to some late-afternoon bogeys (and worse) from the field, and a birdie-birdie-par finish for himself, he will have that opportunity. Without those heroics, Woods would have missed the cut at Jack’s place for the first time in his career. Though it won’t be the late wake-up called like he’d hoped for, Woods will indeed be around for the weekend at the Memorial.

Brooks Kopeka is another big-time named who benefitted from the late slide on the cut line. He’s not been in the best form since golf’s restart, and that trend continued during the opening two rounds. A final-hole double bogey to fall to 3-over looked to give him a head start home, but instead he’ll head back to the course for a dew-sweeping tee time.

Abe Ancer is also among the contingent at 3-over as he struggles to find the ball-striking form he’s exhibited of late. Patrick Reed sits in that same group with fellow American Xander Schauffele alongside him. Schauffele looked to be headed for a missed cut after Thursday’s 78, but a bounce-back 69 in Round 2 earned him a spot ion the weekend tee sheet.

On the other side of the coin are notables who could not quite tame Muirfield Village this week. Bryson DeChambeau, who has been the talk of the Tour as of late, imploded on the back nine as he carded a 10 on the 15^th to help push the cut line to 3-over. It marks the first time he’s missed the weekend on Tour since last September.

Webb Simpson had an outside chance at becoming the No. 1 ranked player in the world with a win, but he came up well short on that conquest with round of 76 and 74 to make it a short week. Rickie Fowler also won’t be around for the weekend as he finished at 5-over par.