Dustin Johnson birdied his opening hole on Friday, and added another birdie and an eagle over his final three. It still wasn’t enough to stick around Kiawah’s Ocean Course for the weekend.
Even with a late flurry, Johnson finished the first 36 holes of the 2021 PGA Championship at six over par. It marks the second consecutive major championship in which the World No. 1 has missed the cut. And if you’re wondering if that’s a rare occurrence, well, it is.
As ESPN noted during its second-round coverage, Johnson became the first top-ranked player to miss consecutive cuts since Greg Norman in 1997. And since the inception of the Official World Golf Ranking in 1986, those are the only two instances of it happening.
Like Johnson, Norman missed the cut in the first two majors of 1997, although, that meant the Masters and the U.S. Open then. Norman was also No. 1 when he withdrew during the second round of the 1988 U.S. Open after hurting his hand hitting a ball out of the rough at Brookline. The injury kept him out of the Open Championship the following month as well before he returned to finish T-9 at the PGA Championship.
While DJ is undoubtedly disappointed by his two major results since winning the Masters in November, you obviously have to have played pretty well just to make this list. Getting to World No. 1 is no small task—and staying there long enough to have something like this happen is even tougher.
That being said, Johnson is clearly struggling after missing back-to-back cuts at majors for the first time in his career, regardless of rank. Since a T-8 at the Genesis Invitational in February, the 36-year-old has failed to record another top 10 in seven starts.
On the bright side, Johnson will likely remain No. 1 following his latest performance. Justin Thomas, who is currently in a battle to make the cut, needs to win to takeover the top spot.