McKINNEY, Texas (AP) — Scottie Scheffler is eager to test the difficulty of the revamped greens at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson a year after tying the PGA Tour’s 72-hole scoring record while winning his hometown event by eight shots.
The world’s top-ranked player doesn’t exactly have momentum on his side going into Thursday’s start at TPC Craig Ranch in suburban Dallas, given how putting kept him from making a run as the defending champion at the PGA Championship last week.
“Overall, I feel like I’m in a good spot,” Scheffler said. “I’ve actually putted the best that I have in my career so far this year and just kind of get a reset, get on some new greens, work on my reads, make sure I’m checking all my fundamentals.”
The Lanny Wadkins-led redesign of the par-71 layout, at a cost of nearly $25 million, focused mostly on new bentgrass greens with more contours. Additional bunkers helped transform the fairways as well.
Undulating greens were a big part of the PGA story at Aronimink, where Scheffler couldn’t make a run to contention Sunday after missing a 4-foot birdie putt early and two par putts that were even shorter on the back nine. He ended up tied for 14th.
Scheffler said he has been reminded of last summer, when a rough time on the greens left him tied for eighth at the Scottish Open before he huddled with putting coach Phil Kenyon and won his first British Open the next week.
“Our discussion was basically like, I just want to make sure I’m starting the ball on line, and I want to make sure I’m lined up where I think I’m lined up,” Scheffler said. “That’s what I did, and I went on to have a great putting week and a great tournament.”
Scheffler certainly had that at the Nelson a year ago, finishing at 31 under with a 253 total that tied Justin Thomas (2017) and Ludvig Aberg (2023) for the lowest in PGA Tour history.
Since Scheffler missed the 2024 Nelson for the birth of his first child, it’s been three years since he finished a day anywhere but atop the leaderboard in the event he attended as a child, and where he made his PGA Tour debut as a high school senior in 2014.
The four-time major champion was the first wire-to-wire Nelson winner since Tom Watson in 1980.
“Definitely good memories from last year,” Scheffler said.
Scheffler raised the trophy first at an event that is cherished at least as much by Jordan Spieth, his friend and fellow Dallas resident and former Texas Longhorn.
Both are playing amid questions about the future of a tournament that doesn’t carry $20 million signature status, and is being played without almost all the top players a week after a major. The PGA Tour is considering an overhaul of the schedule that would put more emphasis on higher-paying events.
This is the sixth tournament at TPC Craig Ranch, which is the Nelson’s third venue since 2017. Next year, the PGA Championship will be at nearby PGA Frisco. Both Dallas-area tour events — the other is at venerable Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth — have been played in May for decades.
The Nelson has largely struggled to draw golf’s biggest stars since its namesake died 20 years ago.
“A lot of that stuff’s out of my control,” Scheffler said. “This tournament means a lot to me. Mr. Nelson means a lot to a lot of us from the Dallas area, but especially myself. We’ve gone through some changes with this tournament over the years. If the tour wants my opinion, I have nothing but great things to say about this event.”
The Nelson has an agreement through 2030 with TPC Craig Ranch, and South Korean conglomerate CJ Group is in the third year of a 10-year sponsorship deal. The highest-ranked of several South Koreans in the field is Si Woo Kim at No. 24.
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Schuyler Dixon, The Associated Press
