I know he won't get paid bc he's an am… so does the money just get divided among the rest of players that made the cut?

Everyone who finishes behind wherever he finishes, gets awarded the money for the position one spot higher.

Do they make any adjustments to the cut line when an amateur makes the cut? Since he was alone in third, did they take his score out when determining the cut line number?

If not, although an amateur can't take home any earnings, they can cost a professional money - and a Master's cut which is huge if you're struggling to keep your tour card.

Could it potentially effect the cut line?

Hypothetically, if there's a bunch of players tied for 70th at say even par after Friday's round. and then another bunch a shot back at +1. If there's an amateur anywhere in the field below that who stands alone in his slot at say -5 (not tied with any other player), is that score taken out? - which would move the entire field up one slot, and then all the players at even par would now be tied for 69th and the cut line would move to +1.

Also, could a weekend field be enormous if there is like a 30-way tie right on the line, would the weekend field be 100 players?

Yes, they could potentially affect the cut. Cut line for The Masters is top 50 and ties. So if you had a leaderboard that looked like this:

48 (+2) Finau
T49 (+3) Bennett (A)
T49 (+3) Sargent (A)
T49 (+3) Carr (A)
T49 (+3) McClean (A)
T49 (+3) Crowe (A)
54 (+4) Woods
T55 (+5) Mickelson
T55 (+5) Champ
T55 (+5) Cantlay
T55 (+5) Thomas

If the amateurs "weren't there" then all those pros would get in -- without the amateurs Woods would be 49th and the rest would be T50th. But that's not how it works. You want to make the cut, you can't do worse than T50. It's not the top 50 pros plus any amateurs -- it's just the top 50 (and ties).


To answer your second question, I'm not aware of anything that sets a maximum number of players to make the cut. 2020 there was a big tie at even par and a total of 60 players made it to the weekend. I think hypothetically if the worst player was still T50 then everyone would make the cut.

For some tournaments, all the pros move up one spot on money.

For other tournaments, every pro gets the money their position earned. And the amateur's cash gets divided amongst guys that made the cut.

The Tour should donate amateur prize money to the charity of the players choosing.

Could it go into a NIL pot for him?

They can give it to me. I'll take it. Who do I call?

you'd think somebody like Phil would drop him like a $100k bag or something