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British Open 2024: Hideki Matsuyama continues impressive streak in major championships

By Alex Myers

July 20, 2024

Pedro Salado

There were plenty of big names who missed the cut at Royal Troon on Friday, from Rory McIlroy to Bryson DeChambeau to Viktor Hovland to Tommy Fleetwood to, well, you get the point. But one name you won't find on that list is Hideki Matsuyama. In fact, the Japanese star has quite an impressive streak going in the four major championships.

Matsuyama made the cut at the British Open with a shot to spare on Friday. And as the AP's Doug Ferguson pointed out, he's the only golfer to play the weekend in every major over the past four years.

But Matsuyama's run at majors goes back even farther than that. He made all three majors that he played in during the 2021 season, including winning the Masters. However, later that year he was forced to miss the Open Championship after testing positive for Covid.

And the year before that, 2020, he made the cut in all three majors that were contested. That year the Open Championship was canceled due to the pandemic.

So you have to go back to the previous Open at Royal Portrush in 2019 to find the last time Matsuyama didn't tee it up on the weekend of a major he started. His streak of 18 consecutive made cuts in majors is the best among current players.

In case you're wondering, the record for consecutive made cuts in majors is 39 by a couple golfers you've probably heard of: Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. So, nice work, Hideki, but you've still got a lot of work to do to catch those guys.

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Is it the British Open or the Open Championship? The name of the final men’s major of the golf season is a subject of continued discussion. The event’s official name, as explained in this op-ed by former R&A chairman Ian Pattinson, is the Open Championship. But since many United States golf fans continue to refer to it as the British Open, and search news around the event accordingly, Golf Digest continues to utilize both names in its coverage.