There was no chance for Jon Rahm. The golfer from Barrika missed the cut at the PGA Championship in Valhalla. Mother Nature did not help. Quite the opposite. The playing conditions improved as the hours passed, the sky cleared, the rain went away and a wind strong enough to bother the golfers did not appear.
More birdies, more red numbers, more darts to the greens of a docile and defenceless Louisville course. Thus, the par result signed by the Basque was left further and further behind as the round progressed to finish below 80th place. Sentenced.
With this missed cut, the sensational streak he had in the Majors comes to an end. Rahm had not missed a weekend in the Majors since the PGA Championship at Bethpage in 2019. This means that, until this Friday, he had made 18 consecutive cuts between the Masters, PGA, US Open and Open Championship. It was the best active streak of a golfer.
Now, the one who picks up the baton that Jon drops is the Japanese Hideki Matsuyama. He has made the cut at the PGA Championship (he is at -7, with even chances of victory) and has now played 16 consecutive Majors over the weekend, specifically since the Masters of Augusta in 2020. It could be said, therefore, that it is the streak of the pandemic, as it started just after the outbreak of the coronavirus. His last missed cut in a major was at the Open Championship in 2019 at Royal Portrush.
Historically, however, the most important streaks of all time are still not threatened. The record for consecutive cuts in the Majors is 39 and is held ex aequo by Jack Nicklaus (between the Masters of 1969 and the Open Championship of 1978) and Tiger Woods (between the US Open of 1996 and the US Open of 2009) However, a note, Tiger missed two in that sequence due to injury, the PGA and the British in 2008.
Returning to Jon Rahm, in his total numbers, he has played a total of 31 Majors to date and has only missed five cuts, which is less than 20 percent. In addition, during this time he has won two (US Open 2021 and Masters 2023) and has added no less than twelve top 10s, close to half of those he has played.
As for the PGA Championship, he has played it eight times with a balance of two top 10s and two missed cuts. His best result was a fourth in the 2018 edition at Bellerive, which ended with a victory for Brooks Koepka.
