The CJ Cup Byron Nelson PGA Tour Tournament wrapped up Sunday in McKinney, and once again Scottie Scheffler showed everyone why he’s the world’s No. 1 golfer. But Scheffler wasn’t the only Texan putting on a show: Dallas’ Jordan Spieth climbed his way to fourth place.
The tournament is named after Waxahachie native Byron Nelsen, one of golf’s greatest players, and it’s currently hosted at TPC Craig Ranch.
Kevin Robbins, a journalist based in Austin who writes for pgatour.com, joined the Standard with more about the tournament.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: First off, tell us more about Byron Nelson. Why is he a figure that’s still so revered in golf?
Kevin Robbins: Byron Nelson had a great tour career. He won 52 times – and consider that he retired at the age of 34 to become a rancher in North Texas. He’s sort of known as the paragon of modesty and integrity. He was a gentleman’s gentleman, but he was a killer on the golf course.
And he set a record in 1945 that will never be touched. He won 18 times that season on the PGA Tour, including 11 straight tournaments. That’ll never happen again.
Okay, so final score: World No. 1 and Texan Scottie Scheffler at 31 under par wins the tournament by eight strokes, dominating the field, tying the PGA Tour’s 72-hole scoring record. Did it ever look like anyone was going to catch?
It never did. He shot 10 under 61 in the first round, and it was over Thursday night. This is the Scottie Scheffler we’ve been waiting to see … He was in full bloom doing everything that we expect him to do and doing it really, really well.
He statistically led almost every category this week. In the field, he was untouchable.
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Now, I have to ask, as a hometown golfer, was part of that because he knows this course so well?
I don’t know. He did not play last year because he was awaiting the birth of his son Bennett. He has played the golf course. It just suits him, just as any golf course does. It’s wide; it was soft this year. It was ripe for scoring.
But I don’t think this course suits him any better than in any other course does. Just, when he’s at his best, he’s unbeatable, and that’s what we saw
Scottie was certainly dominant, but he wasn’t the only Texan who put on a show. Jordan Spieth had a great weekend, too.
Tell us more about Jordan going into Saturday. He staged a comeback of his own, did he not?
He did. He had a great round of 62 yesterday. Jordan did 9 under par, didn’t make a single bogey, never scared the lead – the lead was too far out of reach.
But this is the Jordan Spieth that we’ve been waiting on since his injury to his wrist that set him back last fall and the beginning of this year. It was a good thing to see. Like Scottie, Jordan did a lot of things well yesterday.
It’s too bad that the lead was what it was because at one point, when I turned on the coverage yesterday, Scottie was leading Jhonattan Vegas, who is another Texas Longhorn, was in second place and Jordan was in third. It was an interesting leaderboard for about five minutes.
You were telling me earlier that you’ve staffed this particular tournament in the past. Watching remotely – obviously you were following this on television – could you get a sense of what the crowd’s reaction was like watching these two Texans at home?
Oh, sure. One of the nice things about this new venue is it sort of returns the Nelson to its spring festival atmosphere that it used to have at TPC Las Colinas. It’s a social event in Dallas to come out on the weekend to see and be seen.
And the crowds looked really, really robust yesterday. I can only imagine how loud they were for Scottie, for Vegas, for Spieth. It had to be just a great party, and I know that the city of Dallas was thrilled to see Scottie pull it out.
Yeah, since you were on recently and talked about how big a part golf plays in the culture of Dallas right now, I’ve been catching it everywhere. Any signs of Scottie slowing down at this point?
I don’t think so. This was no fluke, and as I said earlier, this is the Scottie Scheffler the golf world has been waiting to see.
For him to round into form before the PGA Championship – and he had quite a good Masters too, but for him to round into form before the PGA championship and the other two majors of the season that he has not won yet, good things abound.
