Scottie Scheffler watches his shot from the 14th tee during the first round of the Byron Nelson golf tournament in McKinney, Texas, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
LM Otero/AP Photo/LM Otero
McKINNEY — If your preference is for a Sunday final pairing of bitter rivals, well, sorry, Scottie Scheffler and Si Woo Kim are the antithesis.
They are friends, Royal Oaks members and frequent practice-round partners, so their 12:40 p.m. last pairing matchup in Sunday’s final round of the CJ Cup Byron Nelson at TPC Craig Ranch will be more kumbaya than fierce, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be competitive.
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Most important to the tournament itself, it’s a dream scenario. It’s two Dallasites. One is the immensely popular No. 1-ranked player in the world and the Nelson’s reigning champion. The other No. 24 in the world and an ambassador for the tournament’s title sponsor, CJ Group.
“Si Woo, he’s a great guy,” said Scheffler, who at 19 under trails leader Kim by two shots. “He’s a great competitor. I’m looking forward to the challenge of going to chase him down tomorrow. He’s one of the most talented guys we have out here on Tour.”
It’s possible, of course, that Sunday’s winner will come from a different pairing. Four-time major champion Scheffler and 2023 U.S. Open winner Wyndham Clark, also 19 under, are among five players who will enter Sunday within four shots of Kim.
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No Nelson winner has rallied from more than four shots on Sunday, but if you’re looking for an outside threat, five-time major champion Brooks Koepka is six shots back.
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All pursuers know they’ll need to go low to catch four-time PGA Tour winner Kim, especially with soft conditions and another forecast of negligible wind.
Kim leads the PGA Tour this season with 270 birdies, 26 of which have come this week. He knows he’ll need a slew more Sunday, with Scheffler on his heels.
“This course is definitely not a protecting course,” Kim said. “I’m still going to have to shoot 6-to-9 under for a win, especially with Scottie.
“I’m just going to play same attitude as first three days and try to make birdies where I can and then stay aggressive.”
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Kim carried a five-shot lead into Saturday. Through 43 holes of the tournament he only had two bogeys for the week and was 20 under.
But in a four-hole Saturday stretch, starting on No. 8, he went bogey, birdie, bogey, bogey and briefly fell a shot behind Clark.
“After that my caddie told me, ‘You’re in a rush; you’ve got to calm down and try to think of a couple more things,’ ” said Kim, who bounced back with birdies on Nos. 12, 14 and 15 and finished with a 3-under 68.
Scheffler began the day five shots back and on the fourth hole sustained his first birdie of the week. “Sloppy,” he called it.
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In last year’s Nelson he led wire-to-wire, carried an eight-shot lead into the final round and won by eight. This year he didn’t taste his first lead of the until Saturday’s 13th hole, when he rolled in a 7-foot birdie.
That gave Scheffler four birdies in five holes and briefly pulled him into a tie atop the leaderboard with Clark and Kim. But Scheffler missed a 14-foot birdie attempt on the drivable par-4 14th, then a hole later lipped out from 20 feet.
“Two shots back going into tomorrow, so I’m looking forward to the challenge,” Scheffler said. “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.”
Scheffler and Kim were grouped with Koepka the first two rounds here. Nothing new for Scheffler-Kim, who two weeks ago played a practice round with Jordan Spieth at Preston Trail, with Scheffler shooting 60 to break the course record.
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So Kim knows full well what kind of birdie barrage Scheffler could produce Sunday.
“I think no matter what, it’s going to be fun, especially Dallas, kind of like my second hometown,” he said. “He grew up here. It’s going to be a lot of fans cheering for him. I know, of course, everyone’s cheering for him.”
Not everyone. CJ Group employees and local Korean fans certainly will be pulling for Kim, though no one connected with the Nelson would complain about a Scheffler repeat.
Repeat Nelson winners are rare. It last occurred when K.H. Lee did it in 2021-22. Before that the last time was when Tom Watson won three straight from 1978 to 1980.
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Scheffler, though, successfully has successfully defended titles three times on Tour: the 2023 WM Phoenix Open; the 2024 Players Championship; and the 2025 Memorial Tournament.
If Scheffler rallies to win, he’ll become the first PGA Tour player to successfully defend his title after an eight-shot-or-more victory since Tiger Woods in the 2007 WGC Workday Championship.
“I think you can always take positive momentum from things,” Scheffler said. “But coming from last year to this year, it’s a different golf course. The greens have been redone. There’s some new bunkering out there.
“It’s different than it was last year, but just did a good job of staying patient and continuing to execute out there.”
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Another popular Dallasite, Jordan Spieth, entered Saturday with a chance to contend for his first victory since 2022. He was tied seventh after his Friday 62 that included six straight birdies to start his back nine.
But on Saturday Spieth was 1 under at the turn, then opened the back nine with four bogeys in five holes. He shot 2-over 73 and is 11 shots back. If he mounts a Sunday charge but comes up short, he’ll no doubt look back to the start of his week.
Having played four straight tournaments and 13 of the last 16, including last week’s PGA Championship, he did not come to Craig Ranch on Monday or Tuesday. On Wednesday he only played a nine-hole pro-am, then opened the tournament with a 68.
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“With a new golf course, if you’re going to play the tournament, you’ve got to be prepared,” he said. “I legitimately felt like I lost a couple shots [Thursday] on the back nine because I didn’t come out here and see it.
“I was like, ‘Why would you play if you’re not going to prepare the right way?’ ”