{"id":434630,"date":"2025-05-04T22:10:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T22:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/?p=434630"},"modified":"2025-05-04T22:10:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T22:10:16","slug":"2025-cj-cup-byron-nelson-battle-next-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/2025-cj-cup-byron-nelson-battle-next-best\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 CJ Cup Byron Nelson a Battle For Next Best"},"content":{"rendered":"

The PGA Tour stopped at TPC Craig Ranch this week for the 2025 CJ Cup Byron Nelson. In a field without many of its biggest names, there was not a lot of room atop the leaderboard for anyone to take down the world’s number one, Scottie Scheffler. After four days we learned that Scottie Scheffler is back doing Scottie Scheffler things\u2014like winning.<\/p>\n

Looking Back Top Favorites Coming Into the Byron Nelson<\/h2>\n

There\u2019s only one true favorite that will be teeing off at the Byron Nelson this week. Scottie Scheffler<\/a> is once again the favorite for the tournament coming in, and that was cemented after Day 3\u2014and it isn\u2019t even close. Scheffler came into the tournament at +280 to take the win. Considering the field is without the likes of Rory McIlroy, Ludvig Aberg, Colin Morikawa, etc, it made sense that his price is this low. Even with zero finishes outside the top 25 and multiple top 5 finishes this year, many have called it a down year for Scheffler, who has yet to find a win.<\/p>\n

It was just a matter of time for Scottie. And where has been the difference, separating him from everyone else? Just have a look at his par-5 results this week:<\/p>\n

Birdie, eagle, birdie, birdie, birdie, eagle, birdie, birdie, birdie, birdie, eagle… you get where this is going.<\/p>\n

The rest of the so-called \u201cfavorites\u201d were hilariously not even close. Way down at +1800, Texas native Jordan Speith was the next man up. Spieth has a strong track record at TPC Craig Ranch, finishing ninth in 2021 and runner-up in 2022. Recent form has been pretty steady with three straight finishes inside the top 20. Sungjae Im was next at +2200 and is playing much better after a very shaky run of form. Im finished T5 at The Masters and T11 at the RBC Heritage<\/a> after multiple missed cuts and finishes outside the top 50. But this is Im\u2019s first time playing at TPC Craig Ranch, so even he would have been considered taking a flyer.<\/p>\n

While Spieth put in a respectable -19 over the four days which was good enough for a 4th-place finish, Im was not so fortunate. The Korean finished at -12, always far from the top 10.<\/p>\n

CJ Cup Byron Nelson Top 10<\/h2>\n

1 – Scottie Scheffler (-31)<\/p>\n

2 – Erik van Rooyen (-23)<\/p>\n

3 – Sam Stevens (-20)<\/p>\n

4 – Jordan Spieth (-19)<\/p>\n

T5 – Sam Burns (-17)<\/p>\n

T5 – Mark Hubbard (-17)<\/p>\n

T5 – Takumi Kanaya (-17)<\/p>\n

T5 – Will Gordon (-17)<\/p>\n

T5 – Eric Cole (-17)<\/p>\n

T5 – Kurt Kitayama (-17)<\/p>\n

T5 – Adam Schenk (-17)<\/p>\n

T5 – Ricky Castillo (-17)<\/p>\n

Scottie Scheffler, the world’s number one, came in as a heavy favorite and he showed why. Consistent driving, particularly on par-5s, was key to his victory. After his statement first round 61, the tournament was his to lose.<\/p>\n

In a runaway tournament, finding bright spots can be difficult. Coming into Day 4, there was a three-way tie in second between Adam Schenk, Ricky Castillo, and Erik van Rooyen was good to see. Van Rooyen in particular stuck with the leader for much of Sunday, matching Scheffler’s 8-under on the day. If we could find a bright spot in the field, he might be it. He was so, so good.<\/p>\n

Schenk and Castillo fell off a bit, losing ground. Each finished with a still respectable -17 on the tournament, in an 8-way logjam in fifth spot.<\/p>\n

With only one of golf’s heavy hitters in this tournament, it seemed completely wide open. Well, wide open for second best, to be clear.<\/p>\n

Main photo credit: \u00a9 Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The PGA Tour stopped at TPC Craig Ranch this week for the 2025 CJ Cup Byron Nelson. In a field without many of its biggest names, there was not a lot of room atop the leaderboard for anyone to take down the world’s number one, Scottie Scheffler. After four days we learned that Scottie Scheffler […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5439,"featured_media":434662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,246,19],"tags":[162,8086,55,8088,8087,154,8080],"class_list":["post-434630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-golf-news","category-pga","tag-adam-schenk","tag-erik-van-rooyen","tag-jordan-spieth","tag-ricky-castillo","tag-sam-stevens","tag-scottie-scheffler","tag-the-cj-cup-byron-nelson"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5439"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434630"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":434663,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434630\/revisions\/434663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}