The likes of Scottie Scheffler and Blades Brown are chasing big scores as they sit in 2nd position with 21-under on the leaderboard. However, there are a few players on the field who didn’t do particularly well. And some of them surprisingly missed the cut for Championship Sunday. We’re here to list down five of the most shocking pros who will not be playing in the last round of the 2026 American Express.

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Sepp Straka

Sepp Straka’s appearance in La Quinta was probably one of the most shocking ones this year. This time last season, the Austrian was dominating on the Pete Dye Stadium Course to collect his third PGA Tour title. That was after he had been in action for two straight weeks in The Sentry and the Sony Open in Hawaii.

However, despite this being his first event of the season, Straka was nowhere near as convincing this year. He was barely able to get off the mark in the three rounds. After finishing the first two rounds at 2-over par, he managed a -4 on Saturday to end the tournament at 2-under par. Unfortunately, that wasn’t nearly enough to even come close to the 11-under par cutline.

Akshay Bhatia

Akshay Bhatia started the tournament well with a 4-under-par 68. He followed that up with a 3-under in the second round on Friday. It seemed like he was heading for a comfortable finish to land a spot on the Sunday field. However, things went sideways for the 23-year-old in the third round.

He shot a 6-over 78 on Saturday to completely nullify his efforts from the previous 36 holes. That pushed his score from 7-under down to 1-under at the end of the third round. With a challenging cutline, Bhatia lost his grip over the tournament and crashed out of the $9.2 million tournament a day before it concluded.

Justin Rose

The world no. 10, Justin Rose, had come off a spectacular season in 2025. He had beaten Scottie Scheffler & Tommy Fleetwood to win the FedEx St. Jude Championship last year. Going into the 2026 American Express, everyone would have expected the Englishman to at least make the cut. However, his season debut didn’t go as well as he had hoped.

Despite finishing on par on Thursday, Rose delivered an outstanding performance in the second round, scoring a 9-under 63. However, his performance on Saturday didn’t go as planned, as he struggled to find accuracy.

Still, the Englishman was in it till the par 3 17th hole. All he needed was a birdie to get into the cutline. However, his drive landed in the water instead, and he scored a double bogey. That confirmed his exit from the tournament. Rose finished with an 8-under par to end his 2026 American Express dream a round early.

Brian Harman

Brian Harman didn’t have the best start to the tournament. But he wasn’t playing badly by any means. He still only shot 1-over par on Thursday. But the 2023 Open Championship winner had a spectacular round on Friday as he managed a 5-under 67 to rise in the leaderboard.

His run of good form continued in the third round as well, as he scored a 3-under 69. That brought his score up to -7 at the end of 54 holes. Unfortunately, his first-round performance still haunted him, as he couldn’t make up for the difference needed to reach the cutline.

Harman finished 4 strokes away from the -11 cutline and had to leave the 2026 American Express a day earlier than he had planned. He would have been quite disappointed. Especially considering that he had come quite close to winning the tournament twice with a couple of T3 finishes.

Tony Finau

Tony Finau had two consistent rounds of 68-under par. All he needed was a repeat of the same on Saturday to join the field in the final round. However, the 36-year-old struggled to perform at the Pete Dye Stadium Course, carding 71, and that pushed him out of position to make the cut. He did manage to score four birdies for the day. However, that was also accompanied by three bogies. The -11 scoreline proved to be a little too daunting for him in the end. Finau couldn’t get past 54 holes as he ended the tournament with a score of 9-under par.

Who are you looking for to win the $9.2 million tournament? Will Blades Brown become the second youngest winner on the PGA Tour, or will Scheffler continue his dominance? Or will it be Si Woo Kim who climbed up 14 positions to take the lead on Saturday?