What Does It Mean When the Cutline Moves?
The basic nugget is this: The cutline moves in a golf tournament when the scores made by golfers whose rounds are still in progress change the number of players whose overall scores are higher or lower than the score needed to make the cut.
To unpack that, let's start by defining a few terms:
- A "cut" typically comes at the midway point of tournament (i.e., following the second round of a four-round tournament), with roughly the top half of the field continuing and (roughly) the bottom half stopping play at that point.
- A "cut rule" is the criteria that a specific tournament uses to determine how many players are cut. (The U.S. Open cut rule, for example, is that after two rounds are completed, the Top 60 golfers, including ties for 60th place, continue, while the rest are cut from the field.)
- To "make the cut" means that a given golfer's score meets the criteria of the tournament's cut rule — that golfer gets to continue playing after the cut is made.
- So, of course, "miss the cut" means the golfer failed to meet the cut criteria — their score is too high — and they are cut from the field.
- And "cutline" is the specific score in any given tournament that separates those who miss the cut from those who make the cut. If the cutline works out to be +5, and Golfer X's score is +5 or lower, she makes the cut; if her score is +6 or higher, she misses the cut.
Why and How the Cutline Moves
A tournament's cut rule is what determines how many golfers will make or miss the cut. But the cut rule almost never sets a specific score, it only sets the parameters used to determine what that score will be.Let's use the U.S. Open example cited above — the cut rule in that tournament is Top 60 scorers plus ties after two rounds make the cut. What is the cutline, the specific score required to be in the Top 60? We can't know until the late in the second round, as the cut approaches. If the scoring has been great for two rounds, the cutline will be lower (say, +3). If the scoring has been very tough, the cutline will be higher (say, +15).
The specific score that represents the cutline depends on the scores being made by the golfers playing the tournament. The number of golfers making or missing the cut is set by the cut rule, but the specific score that winds up representing the cutline is determined by the scores actually being made by the golfers as they play.
And that is why we hear announcers say "the cutline moved" or "if Player X makes birdie, that will move the cutline to ...": They are telling us that, in response to scores being made, the specific number that represents the cutline in this tournament is changing. The cutline is fluid as birdies and bogeys are made.
Imagine it is late in the second round of a U.S. Open (to stick with our cut rule example — Top 60 plus ties). The cutline stands at, say, +10, because there are 60 golfers who are at +10 or better. The golfer in 60th place is at +10, but still playing. Three other golfers are "outside the cutline" at +11.
In that example, the cutline is +10 because that is the score of the golfer in 60th place. But what if that golfer makes a bogey? He drops to +11, and now four golfers (including the three who were already at +11) are tied for 60th place. The cutline moved from +10 to +11 when the golfer in 60th place made a bogey.
That is why and how the cutline moves in response to scores being made by golfers who are still playing their rounds as the tournament's cut approaches.
Just remember that the cutline is not a specific number determined before a tournament starts. Is is the number that satisfies the criteria of a tournament's cut rule and is determined by the scores being posted. The cutline might move up (e.g., going from +6 to +5) in response to good scores by golfers still playing; or it might move down (e.g., going from +7 to +8) if golfers start making more bogeys.
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