Scottie Scheffler had a good reason for skipping the CJ Cup Byron Nelson in 2024: the birth of his first child.
Scheffler seemingly has won everywhere on the PGA Tour since his breakthrough in 2022, but only once in his home state of Texas and not at the Byron Nelson. He makes his return to the tournament — where he’s the overwhelming favorite to finally land his first title of 2025 — on Thursday in McKinney, Texas.
The tournament has bounced around a few courses in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and made its latest home at TPC Craig Ranch in 2021. Scheffler grew up in Dallas, and the tournament’s namesake Nelson was raised in Fort Worth.
“This event obviously means a lot to me with it being Mr. Nelson’s tournament and being my hometown,” Scheffler said.
TPC Craig Ranch, a par-71, 7,569-yard layout, will undergo a renovation after the tournament. For now, players are noticing a higher level of difficulty in part because the fairways have been overseeded with rye.
“I think this golf course, the knock on it would be that it was a little bit too easy the last two years,” Scheffler said. “There wasn’t a ton of rough, and the fairways were too generous. So having the overseeded rough and bringing in some of the fairways, I think brings a challenge to the course.”
The tournament’s winning score has been 23 under or better for six years running, including all four editions at TPC Craig Ranch.
Taylor Pendrith of Canada captured his first PGA Tour title last year by birdieing the final hole to beat Ben Kohles by a stroke. His 23-under 261 tied the tournament course record set the previous year by Australian star Jason Day.
“I just felt in control for most of the tournament,” Pendrith said. “Then standing on 18, I was trailing by one and thought I needed to make eagle and ended up making birdie, and it was good enough. Yeah, I’d say there’s a lot of really good shots that I hit last year that I can kind of look back on and kind of see the result of it in my head.”
The CJ Group, a South Korean conglomerate, became a title sponsor last year, and the tournament has drawn a deep contingent of Korean participants. After Scheffler, the next three highest-ranked golfers in the field are Koreans Sungjae Im (No. 20), Byeong Hun An (No. 37) and Tom Kim (No. 38).
Even before CJ’s involvement, K.H. Lee (2021, 2022), S.H. Kim (2019) and Sangmoon Bae (2013) all won the event.
“I think a lot of the Korean players are more accurate than a lot of certain players,” Tom Kim said. “And I think when you can hit a lot of fairways and a lot of greens — the greens are always really good here — so once that putter gets hot, you’ll make a ton of birdies, and that’s what you have to do out here.
“When you consider all the top Korean players, we’re pretty decent ball strikers. I think that’s why our guys have had success.”
–Field Level Media
