Scottie Scheffler walks off the 10th green during the final round of the CJ Cup Byron Nelson golf tournament in McKinney, Texas, Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Tony Gutierrez/AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez
MCKINNEY — Jordan Spieth is dialed in, throwing darts on the back nine as his sizable gallery continues to grow. Tap-in birdie on the par-5 12th. Another birdie on the challenging, uphill par-4 13th. A short birdie after just missing the green on the drivable par-4 14th.
In a more perfect world, his charge to 16 under par Sunday carries considerable weight. At the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, it’s just a morning warmup act for the main event. When he goes in the water on No. 15 and makes double bogey to slide to 14 under, he drops out of the top 10, although his presence there was never meaningful, anyway. It’s only noon and the names gathered above and below him haven’t even teed off at the birdie-fest known as TPC Craig Ranch.
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In fact, Scottie Scheffler is 40 minutes from his tee time when Spieth finds his watery grave on the 15th. One day those two will duel in the sun on the back nine here, and it will make Dallas golf history. As it stands, Scheffler and Si Woo Kim, playing in the final pairing, each shot six-under-par 65 and weren’t even in the running by the time they reached the 17th hole. Wyndham Clark’s 11-under 60, playing just in front of Kim and Scheffler, propelled him to 30 under par and his first victory in a season in which he hadn’t found a single top 10.
This is the sixth Nelson held out here in what some of us consider the Far North, and it’s the second time the winner has reached 30 under par. Scheffler won a year ago at 31 under. The worst scores that found their way into a winner’s circle here are Jason Day’s and Taylor Pendrith’s 23-under par tallies.
I’m not going to pretend TPC Las Colinas was Pine Valley, but Keegan Bradley won at 3 under par one year. Adam Scott brought home a win at 7 under. They weren’t that low every year, but no one got to 20 under. Birdies down the stretch were, for the most part, earned.
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There’s nothing wrong with staging an event at a course that showcases the greatness of the modern golfer. But the unlikely rains along with the lack of wind and the light rough made this the most beatable of courses. Kim shot a 60 in the second round before Clark did it Sunday. Kim finished 27 under par and Scheffler snatched his sixth third-place-or-higher finish of the season at 25 under. But Clark ran off and hid with nine birdies and an eagle.
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The fourth-place finisher was Jackson Suber at 22 under. He had not finished higher than 19th (at Myrtle Beach) this season and had missed five of nine cuts. Suber tore up the course with a 63 Sunday. Johnny Keefer, who tied for 9th with a 63, had one top 25 finish before Sunday and has missed six cuts. Relative unknowns eating up your course is never a great look.
Of course, not everything needs to play like the PGA last Sunday, where pins were stuck on the side of hills and each birdie was a Herculean task. But there’s something about Scheffler leaving a golf course at 25 under par and feeling like he played “OK.’’ He never made a 5 until settling for par on No. 12 — his 66th hole — but said later, “Around this place, if you’re gonna beat 30 under, you can’t be making a bunch of fives.’’
Likewise for Spieth, whose career has taken a decidedly different arc than Scheffler’s since reaching No. 1 in the world a decade ago, his 15 under par got him no better than a T-19 finish. Still, it feels like a win for the Nelson that fans basically could watch the two local favorites play golf for nine hours a day.
At next week’s Colonial, a tournament that can rightly brag it has a better, deeper field— seven top-20 golfers in the official world rankings to the Nelson’s one (Scottie) —Spieth and Scheffler are taking the week off. It’s nothing personal, mind you (Spieth won there in 2016), but the current schedule of majors and elevated events makes it virtually impossible for them to play the local tournaments on consecutive weekends.
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And that’s not a bad win for the Nelson to claim. Spieth, who has gone nine years since his last major win, had one bad round —a two-over 73 on Saturday. He was 17 under the other three days. Throw in another 65 and he’s at least competing with the mysterious Jackson Suber, if not his UT pal, Scheffler.
“I had a couple of eagle putts that caught lips and really had a chance to be a special day,’’ Spieth said. “Ultimately, I feel good about where my game’s at. I just didn’t get a lot to show for it. I’m going to stay patient and stay the course.’’
Kind of like the CJ Cup Nelson. In another year, the new rough will have grown in. A late April date might fit more schedules. With any luck, the pros will face something beyond a soft, gettable layout.
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Still, a great test of golf has to have something beyond bad weather in its back pocket to call itself a challenge.