The letters WD appear next to a player's name on a leaderboard and stand for withdrawn, meaning that the player has pulled out of the tournament and is no longer in play. No final placing, no continued listing, just a marker that the round was stopped before it was finished.
It is one of the most common abbreviations you will come across when following a tour event on screen, and it says something important about what actually happened out on the course. Below we go through when the marker is applied, why players withdraw and how you can quickly tell it apart from the other letter combinations sitting right next to it in the results list.
WD stands for withdrawn and means the player pulled out of the tournament
Understanding what WD means in golf really comes down to one thing: the player has left the tournament, voluntarily or for compelling reasons, before it was completed. It can happen in the middle of a round, between two rounds or even before the player has teed off on the first hole. As long as the name was in the starting field and was then removed without all the scheduled holes being played, the notation becomes withdrawn.
The difference compared to a player who simply played badly is that a WD gets no score to compare against. A player who battles through the entire week ends up far down the list with a number next to the name. A player with WD has no number at all, because the round was never completed. That is why the letters, not a result, remain where the placing would otherwise have appeared.
Why a player withdraws in the middle of a tournament
By far the most common cause is the body. A back that seizes up during the warm-up, a wrist that swells after a hard strike in the wet rough or an old injury that flares up on the fifteenth hole is enough for a player to put the clubs back in the bag and walk in. At the top level there is rarely any reason to keep playing while injured when no prize money is waiting far down the field anyway, and the risk of worsening an injury outweighs the prestige of finishing.
Illness works the same way. A stomach bug, a fever or dehydration in strong heat can knock anyone out, and then it is better to withdraw than to struggle carelessly through the rest. Beyond that there are personal reasons such as family events or travel that suddenly has to be brought forward. In those cases it has nothing to do with the play on the course at all, but with something else taking priority.
Sometimes the line between that and a purely tactical decision is thin. A player who has already missed the cut line by a wide margin and feels the slightest ailment would rather save the body for the next week than play out the round unnecessarily. It is rarely popular, but it is entirely permitted and a natural part of a long competitive season.
The difference between WD, DQ, RTD and a missed cut
The leaderboard is full of short codes, and several of them are conceptually close to withdrawn without meaning the same thing. Being able to keep them apart means you immediately understand why a name has disappeared from the fight at the top.
WD - withdrawn
This is the starting point: the player themselves, or the player's medical team, ends participation before the tournament is over. The decision is voluntary in the sense that no rule forced it, even if an injury can in practice make the choice obvious. The notation is applied whether it happens before the first shot or on the final nine.
DQ - disqualified
Here it is not about a choice of one's own but about a breach of the rules. An incorrectly filled-in scorecard, one club too many in the bag or a missed starting time can lead to the player being struck from the tournament by the officials. The difference from withdrawn is that DQ is a decision made for the player, not by the player.
RTD - retired
Some scoring systems use RTD for a player who broke off an ongoing round, as opposed to never starting it. The line drawn against withdrawn differs between tours and tournaments, and the two codes are sometimes used interchangeably. If you want to dig into that particular nuance, we have explained it separately in the rundown of what does rtd mean in golf.
MC and CUT - missed cut
After the first rounds of a four-day tournament the field is cut down, and everyone who did not make the cut line gets a marker that they are not playing on. This is no drama and no injury, simply that the score was not enough. Unlike withdrawn, these players have a complete score recorded for the rounds they actually played.
What the marker means when you read the result
A WD affects how the whole leaderboard should be interpreted. The player is not counted in the final standings and therefore takes no placing that would otherwise have pushed the other players down. For anyone following a close fight for the top places it is worth knowing, since a broken-off participation in practice opens up the space just behind.
Withdrawn also affects the statistics. A tournament that has been broken off normally gives no points on ranking lists and does not count as a completed start in the same way as rounds where the player reached the finish. Anyone comparing players' seasons should therefore read a WD as an asterisk rather than a weak result, because there is no result to factor in. The same logic applies when you try to read who actually shares a position high up, something we tackle in the text on what does tied mean in golf.
Does WD exist in ordinary social golf?
In an ordinary round with your friends, no one puts a formal code next to your name, but the same principle applies if you play a handicap-qualifying round. If you break off a registered round without completing enough holes, it simply is not counted, and your handicap stays put instead of changing. It is worth knowing before you put the clubs in the car after nine wet holes and think the score counts. If you want a grip on how the counting itself works from the ground up, the rundown of how to count points in golf is a good starting point.
The most common reason to break off an amateur round is actually not injuries but the weather and the body's comfort. A November round on the west coast can start in sunshine and end in sideways rain, and anyone who is cold or soaked through loses both concentration and enthusiasm long before the last hole. Here clothing makes more difference than you might think. A midlayer q-zip - navy sits like a thin, breathable layer under a jacket and keeps the warmth in without locking up your swing, which is often exactly what gets you to finish rather than break off. On colder days that is the difference between walking in after twelve holes and actually recording a full round.
On the days when it is not the cold but the humid air and long hours in the sun that wear you down, it is rather moisture management and fit that decide whether you have the stamina to go all the way round. The tech polo - dark navy is built in a technical material that wicks moisture and holds its shape throughout the round, and it works just as naturally on the tee as at lunch afterwards. A polo that does not cling or sag after nine holes removes one of the small irritations that otherwise build up towards the end of a long day.
How to keep track of the abbreviations next time
Golf's scoring language is full of two-letter codes that look alike at a quick glance but mean entirely different things, and withdrawn is one of the most misunderstood because it is easily confused with both disqualification and a missed cut. The key is to remember that WD always points to a break-off, never to a bad result. Once you have the whole alphabet of the course's words gathered in one place, every leaderboard immediately becomes easier to read, and our glossary of golf terms in swedish takes you through the most common concepts one by one.
When you then stand on the first tee yourself on an early spring morning, you want to dress so that you never have to consider withdrawing. A sturdy baseball cap - navy keeps low spring sunlight and rain out of your eyes, and a well-fitting glove gives you the grip you need even when the damp settles in your wrists. For right- and left-handed players the glove comes in two versions, and a secure feel in the grip does more for your endurance during a long round than you might think. If you are exploring your own equipment ahead of the season, you can see the entire range at Local Rule and build a set that keeps you out on the course all the way round, whatever the weather comes up with.
