Of the four Majors, none is as likely to either make a mockery of the form book or humble the world’s most decorated players than the US Open.
Before the 2025 event, much was made of the deep and brutal rough prepared for the players at Oakmont and sure enough, it has helped ensure that, once again, a sizeable number of big names will not be playing any further part beyond Friday’s second round.
Here are 13 of the biggest names to miss the cut at the US Open.
Bryson DeChambeau (+10)
DeChambeau’s epic victory over Rory McIlroy at Pinehurst No.2 for his second US Open title may have only been 12 months ago, but after the LIV Golfer finished on 10 over at Oakmont to miss the cut by three, it seemed considerably longer.
In fairness to DeChambeau, he doesn’t make a habit of Major failures nowadays, with five top 10 finishes in his previous six appearances, but not managing to take his title defence into the weekend will be bitterly disappointing for the LIV Golfer.
Beforehand, he revealed he was using new irons at the tournament, but the Golfing Scientist will likely be tinkering even more ahead of his final chance to clinch a Major this year at The Open.
Ludvig Aberg (+8)
Ludvig Aberg remains one of the hottest prospects in golf, helped by victory at the Genesis Invitational and seventh at The Masters. Like the PGA Championship though, the 25-year-old will play no part in the final 36 holes of the US Open after rounds of 72 and 76 saw him finish on eight over, just one beneath the cut line.
That means he’s still looking for his maiden Major title. He’ll have one more chance this year when attention turns to The Open in July at Royal Portrush.
Justin Thomas (+12)
Two-time PGA Champion Thomas has been largely back to his best in 2025 after emerging from a difficult run of form that began a year or so after he lifted the Wanamaker Trophy for the second time in 2022.
Confirmation he was firmly back in the zone came with his first win since that event at the RBC Heritage, while a T2 at the Truist Championship further enhanced the notion that he was once again a force to be reckoned with.
It hasn’t worked out as well in the Majors so far this year, though, with a T36 at The Masters followed by a missed cut at the PGA Championship. He can add another to the list following his Oakmont performance, which saw him finish on 12 over, five shots beneath the cut line.
Joaquin Niemann (+10)
Give Joaquin Niemann the challenge of a LIV Golf tournament, and he's likely to grab it with both hands, with four wins on the circuit this season alone, including in Virginia immediately before heading to Oakmont.
However, it hasn’t gone quite as smoothly for the Chilean in Majors so far. Nevertheless, T29 at The Masters was respectable enough, while T8 at the PGA Championship was the best Major result of his career. Could he continue that upward trend at the US Open? Sadly not, as two rounds of 75 left him on 10-over and heading home early.
Wyndham Clark (+8)
Two years ago, Wyndham Clark held off the challenge of Rory McIlroy to win the title, but there will be no repeat this time around after he completed two rounds of 74 to finish eight over for the tournament and just one short of the score he needed to continue his challenge for another 36 holes.
That follows a T46 at The Masters and a T50 at the PGA Championship. He'll be hoping to reverse the trend at The Open.
Patrick Cantlay (+8)
There's not much missing from Patrick Cantlay's resume, but one glaring omission is a Major, and his wait will continue for another month at least after he narrowly missed the cut at Oakmont.
Cantlay completed rounds of 76 and 72 to miss out by just one and leave him wondering what might have been.
Tommy Fleetwood (+9)
Until late on in his second round, Fleetwood stood above the cut line… just, but two bogeys in his final four holes proved the difference between looking forward to Saturday and leaving Oakmont early.
In the end, Fleetwood completed rounds of 74 and 75 to finish nine-over for the tournament, two beneath the cut line, meaning he won’t have the chance to add to his three top-five US Open results this year.
Dustin Johnson (+10)
If one player in the field shouldn’t have been intimidated by Oakmont, it’s the man who won the US Open title at the venue in 2016, Dustin Johnson.
He was confident he could contend for his second US Open title beforehand, too, saying: “My game’s been really close.”
Unfortunately for the LIV Golfer, it’s not quite close enough, at least on the evidence of his two rounds at Oakmont, each of which finished with 75. That will do little to quell suggestions he has lost some of his competitive edge in recent years, particularly as it comes after he failed to make it beyond 36 holes at The Masters and the PGA Championship too.
Cameron Smith (+8)
It’s now some time since 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith last posed a threat in a Major, with his most recent top-10 finish coming 14 months ago with a T6 at The Masters. Since then, the best he has managed is T32 in last year’s US Open at Pinehurst No.2, but he’s racked up four successive missed cuts since then, the latest coming after rounds of 75 and 73 left him short of a third-round berth.
Ahead of The Open, can the LIV Golfer find some of the form that gave him victory at St Andrews three years ago? He’s now got an extra two days to try and answer that question.
Shane Lowry (+17)
Ahead of the US Open, Shane Lowry admitted a series of near misses in tournaments so far in 2025 had been “hard to take,” but the 2019 Open champion vowed to keep plugging away, adding, “There will be some Sunday soon, hopefully, where I’m walking off that 18th green, pretty happy and pretty proud of myself. Hopefully it’ll be this week.”
That’s a wish that won’t be coming true after all, as Lowry endured a nightmare two rounds, first with a birdie-free nine over 79 on Thursday, then with an eight over on Friday. In the second round, his agony was compounded by a one-stroke penalty when he picked up his ball up without marking it.
Phil Mickelson (+8)
Phil Mickelson has admitted there's a good chance this could be his final US Open outing. If it is, that means he'll end his career in it having never won the tournament, but placed runner-up six times.
It was always a long shot that the 54-year-old would complete his career Grand Slam this week, and he narrowly missed out even on a place in the weekend's action following two rounds of 74.
Sepp Straka (+11)
There’s been virtually no stopping Sepp Straka this year, with frequent visits to the upper echelons of various leaderboards, including wins at The American Express and the Truist Championship.
One area that form hasn’t translated to this year so far is the Majors, with missed cuts in the opening two now joined by a third at the US Open.
Straka was up against it after his opening round, an eight over 78 that included two bogeys, and while there was an improvement on Friday, his 73 left him four away from making it to the weekend, meaning he has a month to try to work out how to crack the Major code between now and The Open.
Justin Rose (+14)
Justin Rose may have missed out to Rory McIlroy in a playoff at The Masters, but he won plenty of fans with his typically gracious response to the defeat, and there’s no doubt he’d be a hugely popular Major winner if he could get over the line this year.
Unfortunately for the 2013 US Open champion – and his fans – his next attempt, the PGA Championship, resulted in a missed cut, and that was also the case at Oakmont, when two rounds of 77 ensured he missed out on the weekend. Next it’s onto The Open, where Rose finished T2 in 2024.
