The PGA TOUR moves on from New Orleans after a fun team-up event last week at TPC Louisiana, returning to a standard format event back in the Lone Star State. This year’s edition of THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson takes place at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas, just outside of Dallas, Texas. This week’s event has some big names in the field and plenty of players with deep Texas ties. Let’s take a quick look at the history of this event and the course that will welcome this week’s tournament.
The history of the event
The PGA TOUR has had a regular stop in the Dallas area dating back to 1944 when Byron Nelson won the Texas Victory Open, just after World War II. It moved around to different courses in the Dallas area and had different names, with HP, Verizon, EDS and AT&T all sponsoring the event at different points in its history. This will be the second year of THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson after the new sponsor joined in 2024. Since 1968, “Byron Nelson” has been honored in the name of the event.
The course has always been in the Dallas area and played on a number of great local courses until settling at TPC Craig Ranch in 2021. K.H. Lee won the first two years of the event at Craig Ranch while Jason Day completed his return to the winner’s circle in 2023. Last year, Taylor Pendrith won THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson with a four-round score of -23 by one stroke over Ben Kohles.
The event carries some extra significance since it is the final event before the Truist Championship, the Signature Event next week in Philadelphia. Players can still earn their way into the field for that event via the Aon Next 10 and the Aon Swing 5.
The winner will earn 500 FedExCup points and $1.78 million this week, with the overall purse at $9.9 million, an increase of $400,000 from last year. The field will include 156 players with the typical 36-hole cut that includes the top 65 and ties.
A closer look at the course
TPC Craig Ranch has undergone a major renovation since last season, led by 21-time PGA TOUR winner Lanny Wadkins and his design firm. The course is expected to play more difficult relative to par after very low scores over the last few years.
The course can now be stretched to the third-longest annual PGA TOUR course after length was added to holes 5, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 14. Another major change is that the rough has been changed from 2.5″ Bermuda rough to 3.25″ ryegrass rough, which should punish players who fail to find the fairways. Since the fairways are still very wide, though, it should still be a low-scoring event.
Historically, the course has played as one of the easiest each year at a gaudy -2.30 per round. Only five holes averaged over par over the last four events, and even with more length, there should be plenty of birdie chances available.
The course could play differently this year after the renovations, but it’s still important to consider how it has played in the past.
With that in mind, the key metrics to target for this week’s event include Strokes Gained: Approach, Birdie or Better %, Strokes Gained: Easy Scoring Conditions, and Strokes Gained: Putting. Since there hasn’t been much resistance from tee to green in the past years, the event often turns into which player has the hottest putter for the week.
