PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The two biggest names on the PGA TOUR threatened an early exit at THE PLAYERS Championship.

Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler both battled the cutline on Friday at TPC Sawgrass, each going through bouts of poor play that nearly left them without a weekend tee time. The last time both missed the cut in the same event? The 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship.

That stat will not need to be updated just yet, as both finished 1-over, one shot inside the cut. McIlroy shot 71 and Scheffler shot 73.

They kept their tournaments alive in different ways. McIlroy was battling the number all morning, which then looked destined to finish at 1-over, not 2-over, and gave himself the added breathing room when he two-putted from 31 feet on the par-5 ninth for a closing birdie.

Scheffler, meanwhile, was safely inside the cutline, even-par through 13 holes, before late bogeys at 14 and 16 put him right on the number. But Scheffler safely navigated the island green 17th, then stuffed his approach on the 18th and rolled in the putt to join McIlroy with closing birdies.

“It would have sucked to be going home this afternoon,” McIlroy said, “so to hang around and hopefully play two more days, that's a win.”

There was a different tenor to their made cuts, too. McIlroy continues to work off the mental and physical rust of his back injury. For that reason, McIlroy said it was important to make the weekend, even if he will enter the third round with a double-digit deficit.

That’s likely not a shared sentiment for Scheffler, who didn’t speak after his round but showed visible signs of frustration throughout his round.

McIlroy has had to lower his expectations of this title defence at TPC Sawgrass. He would’ve loved to contend, and still has an outside chance to do so, but the biggest win was getting through two rounds healthy. That much was far from a sure thing 48 hours ago. McIlroy spent the early part of the week at his home in South Florida, receiving treatment for back spasms that caused him to withdraw before the third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. He didn’t step foot on TPC Sawgrass until Wednesday afternoon and only hit a few dozen balls, never hitting a club longer than a 6-iron.

Despite that, McIlroy’s long game has looked surprisingly sharp. The two-time winner of THE PLAYERS wasn’t lacking any speed through 36 holes, ranking inside the top five in driving distance and inside the top 25 in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee. The issue has been the shorter clubs. On Thursday, it was McIlroy’s chipping that suffered. On Friday, it was his putter. McIlroy didn’t make a putt longer than 5 feet until the 18th hole, his ninth of the day. He made two putts longer than 5 feet all day.

“I felt like I played well enough today to be up the leaderboard,” he said. “I just couldn't get a putt to drop.”

Part of the short-game struggles was injury-related. Those shots require more bending, which puts more strain on McIlroy’s back. He’s also had several downhill lies, further exasperating the issue. Rust also played a part, as McIlroy said he was surprised by how much rust he felt. Much of that wore off by the end of the day Friday, giving McIlroy some optimism for the weekend. Notably, McIlroy was relieved that a weekend here means his next start won’t come until the Masters next month. Had he missed the cut, McIlroy would have looked to add one more event ahead of his other important title defence.

“Bones (Mackay) asked me walking down the ninth hole there, my last hole, 'What's your plan after this for like the next few weeks?', and I said, 'Bones, I'll tell you after this hole. There's a lot riding on this golf hole,'” McIlroy said.

Others weren’t so fortunate. While McIlroy played his way onto the right side of the cut line, Ben Griffin (4-over) led the group of notables who played their way outside of it. Griffin, 2-under to start the day, shot 78 and will miss the weekend. Jake Knapp (3-over), Shane Lowry (5-over), Joel Dahmen (6-over) and Tom Hoge (9-over) also missed the cut. Hoge had a particularly tough time on Friday, shooting 80. That included a 9 on the par-4 seventh hole. Hoge hit it into the water off the tee, topped his next shot and then shanked his fourth shot en route to the quintuple bogey.