Is the cut line in golf based on how far back you are (my understanding), or do a certain number players need to make the cut?
Most often it is based on how many players shall be allowed to go on into the next round. Time constraints and the course capacity usually plays a part in dictating how many players will go on. What probably confused the OP is that the cut is often stated as the score you had to play to make the cut, as in; “the cut was set at three strokes under par, so Tiger had no problem making it having collected a solid eight under par over the three rounds.”
Technically speaking this depends on the tourney rules though and you could have a tournament according to the OP’s version of a cut.
Sparc
It is a moving number that will eliminate a set number of players for the weekend rounds. The exact number that move on is determined by the tournament organizers. If the course is playing easy, the cut may be even par or even lower. On a difficult course, the cut may be up to +10. In most tourneys, a set number of people must make the cut, so the number will change accordingly.
Another rule of thumb (based on what everyone’s posted so far) is that the cut will be determined on X amount of players within 10 shots of the lead, including ties. A lot of tourney’s average about 60-75 players on the weekend (they start out with about 140). The Masters is different, as they only invite about 90 players.
jk1245 and BF, you guys gave conflicting answers! It seems that those two answers are contradictory. Which is right?
I believe a lot of tournaments set the cut at the top 60 players and ties or anyone within 10 shots of the lead (whichever allows the greater number of players to advance).
Heh heh. It will vary depending on the tournament and the situation. For example, The Masters cut is the low 44 plus ties. It used to be the low 40 and ties and anyone within 10 shots of the lead. Usually though, you are more than 10 shots back if you are not in the lowest 44.
It does depend on the tournament though. Unfortunately, I could not find any online cut data for the other majors, so I don’t know if they take only the low “X” number of players and ties or low and ties and any within a certain number of shots.
They weren’t conflicting answers, they are complimentary answers, since the cut is the top X players and whoever is ten or less strokes behind the leader. As stated though these are usually pretty close, but sometimes it just gets odd, as you can see below.
Here’s the SD on the US Open:
The “within 10 strokes” occurs regularly with the US Open, I believe. It’s fascinating that the fate of a number of people can depend on the leader birdieing the last hole (or bogeying); at the same time, since it’s the top XX plus ties, there are often occasions when player XX can birdie the last hole and kick out the ten guys he was tied with, or bogey it and bring a bunch of guys in.
The ‘within 10 strokes’ rule is most commonly seen in The Masters, The US Open and the PGA Championship - three of the four majors. It is notably absent in the British Open (aka ‘The Open Championship’ outside of the US). The British Open cut is set at the low 70 and ties.
Most PGA tour events set the cut at around the low 60 players.
The way the cut works was changed at the majors because it was felt that restricting the cut to the low 60 would eliminate some people who still had a legitimate shot at climbing back into things. This idea supposedly originated with sportswriter Jim Murray, although that could just be local (Los Angeles) legend.