This year’s finale of the the CJ Cup Byron Nelson is set for two very good friends go head to head and Matt Cooper previews the final round.
Golf betting tips: CJ Cup Byron Nelson final round
2pts Jaeger and Brown to win their three-balls at 3.5/1 (BOYLE Sports)
If the CJ Cup Byron Nelson is a case of two tournament titles fighting awkwardly to become one, then this year’s finale is set for two very good friends to have a very happy fight on home turf.
Si Woo Kim leads at TPC Craig Ranch on 21-under 192, two strokes clear of Scottie Scheffler and Wyndham Clark with Stephan Jaeger, Tom Hoge and Sungjae Im a further two shots back in a tie for fourth.
For Kim and Scheffler, good friends who both play out of Royal Oaks Country Club in Dallas, this is a tremendous opportunity.
“I’m looking forward to the challenge,” said defending champion Scheffler. “It’s always fun when I get to play with Si Woo. I think it's good for the community to have two guys that are local up there on the leaderboard. Should be a fun day tomorrow.”
Kim is equally, if not more, thrilled by the Sunday pairing. “It’s going to be fun, especially being Dallas, which is kind of like my second hometown,” he said. “Scottie grew up here. It’s going to be a lot of fans cheering for him. I know, of course, everyone’s cheering for him. I was hoping for a pairing with Scottie.”
It has been a week of low scoring and no-one is expecting it to be any different on Sunday.
Kim needed par on 18 in his second round to shoot 59 and was so pumped he flew the green with his approach from the fairway. He failed to get up and down, so had to settle for a 60.
The Korean was five shots clear of the field through the early part of his third round but then made three bogeys around the turn before recovering to establish an advantage.
“It was a tough day for me,” he admitted. “I made mistakes and my caddie told me I was rushing. Birdies helped get the mojo back.”
He’s a four-time winner on the PGA Tour, but it’s over three years since he last lifted a trophy which is something of a surprise because he’s recorded plenty of top five finishes and has four of them this season alone – the first at TPC Scottsdale (which like TPC Craig Ranch is a Tom Weiskopf original design) and the most recent at the start of this month (at Doral).
He won on the Korn Ferry Tour with a share of the 54 hole lead and his first PGA Tour title came from a solo advantage at this stage. But since then he is 0-for-4 at converting with a solo lead and 1-for-2 with a share of it.
If those memories are in his head, this course might be the best spot for him because he has little alternative but to attack.
“This course is definitely not a protecting course,” he said. “I have to shoot 6- to 9-under for a win, especially with Scottie there. I’m going to play with the same attitude and stay aggressive.”
While Kim is trying to end a three year wait for another win, Scheffler is trying to find an end to a four month drought and he’s been close in his last four starts.
He was one shot outside a play off at the Masters, lost in a play off at the RBC Heritage, was second in the Cadillac Championship and tied the first round lead in the PGA Championship before wilting.
He’s also become a dangerous man on the shoulder of a 54-hole leader. The first five times he had that chance he never won. But then he won three in a row.
Since that trio, he’s chased down Matt Fitzpatrick in the RBC Heritage only to lose the play off and then was second at this stage but six back of Cameron Young at Doral. He finished second, still half a dozen strokes adrift.
There is also a potentially significant parallel with January’s The American Express. Then, as now, Kim led although only by one stroke. Scheffler was in second and carded a 66 to win.
Kim is best price 23/20 with Scheffler 11/8, and Clark – who admits he prefers a tougher test so is tickled to be involved in a birdie-fest – 7/1
Those price look right as do those of the chasers – Im and Jaeger are 30s, Hoge 50s. I fancy Jaeger for a run at the top, but he needs help from the top trio even if he posted 64.
We’ll instead add STEPHAN JAEGER to a two-ball double. He played nicely when T19 in last week’s PGA Championship and this week has carded two 64s either side of a 68.
He carded a final round 63 at Craig Ranch when T11 in 2023 and was T20 in 2024. He has also finished T2 and T11 at Weiskopf’s Black Desert
He’s up against Clark in the final round who has obvious quality (virtue of his US Open win) but has never entirely taken to Weiskopf designs (two top 30s with a best of T10 in 10 starts).
We’ll add the youngster BLADES BROWN who is up against Tony Finau.
Brown has been enjoying himself on the Korn Ferry Tour (two top three finishes this year) and the opposite field events (third in Puerto Rico, T9 at Myrtle Beach), the free scoring suits him, and his game came together nicely in round three.
Finau has been a very stodgy run of form for a good while now and his putter is absolutely cold this week. The double pays 3.5/1.
Posted at 11:10 BST on 24/05/26
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