For the second consecutive year, due to COVID concerns, The CJ Cup has been repositioned from Nine Bridges in South Korea to Las Vegas, Nevada.
This edition will have The Summit Club taking over the hosting duties. Last year’s tournament was contested at the famed Shadow Creek.
The 78-man field will be missing world No. 1 Jon Rahm but still features a plethora of big-time names, including 36 of the top-50 ranked players in the world.
Seventeen players who competed in the recent Ryder Cup matches will headline, including nine from the winning U.S. squad: Dustin Johnson, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, Xander Schauffele, Jordan Spieth, Tony Finau, Harris English and Scottie Scheffler.
Players from the Euro side include Paul Casey, Tommy Fleetwood, Sergio Garcia, Tyrrell Hatton, Viktor Hovland, Shane Lowry, Rory McIlroy, and Ian Poulter.
As we do each week, we’ll look at the event’s history, the viewing schedule, the field, the odds, and whatnot.
The Skinny
Tournament: The CJ Cup
Tour Debut: 2017-18 Season
2022 Season Week No:: 4 of 43
Dates:Â Oct. 14-17, 2021
Where: Las Vegas, Nevada
Course:Â The Summit Club
Distance: Par 72, 7,457 yards
Architect: Tom Fazio
Field: 78 players
Format: 72 holes/no cut
Purse: $9,750,000
Winning Share: $1,755,000
FedExCup/OWGR Points: 500/70
Defending Champion:Â Jason Kokrak
How to Follow The CJ Cup
TELEVISION: Thu-Sun: 5-8 p.m. (GOLF Channel)
PGA TOUR LIVE: Thu-Sun: 12:45-9 p.m. (Featured Groups)
Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
History: The CJ CUP
The four-year old CJ Cup may lack a deep history but its first three champions included two of the game’s biggest stars with Justin Thomas bookending titles (2017 and 2019) between four-time major winner Brooks Koepka (2018). Jason Kokrak won last year’s event at Shadow Creek.
The CJ Cup was initially inserted into the PGA Tour’s wrap-around portion of its 2017-18 schedule. For its first three editions it acted as the second stop of a three-week Asian swing, proceeded by the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai, China.
Scheduled to be contested annually on South Korea’s Jeju Island, THE CJ CUP will be played for the second straight year as the second of a two-stop Las Vegas swing with The Summit Club playing host before returning to Asia in 2022.
As was the case with Shadow Creek – last year’s venue, The Summit is a Tom Fazio-designed Vegas masterpiece.
History: Winners
2020: Jason Kokrak (-20)
2019: Justin Thomas (-20)
2018: Brooks Koepka (-21)
2017: Justin Thomas (-9)
History: Tournament Names
– CJ Cup at Summit (2021)
– CJ Cup at Shadow Creek (2020)
– CJ Cup at Nine Bridges (2017-19)
History: Records
Scoring
72: 267 – Brooks Koepka (2018)
18: 62 – Ryan Palmer (2018, Rd 4)
Win Margin: 4 – Brooks Koepka (2018)
Wins
2 – Justin Thomas (2017, 2019)
Vault: The 2020 CJ Cup
It took 233 career starts, but Jason Kokrak finally claimed victory on the PGA Tour.
The then 35-year-old bomber out of Xavier had been close numerous times in his career, posting three runner-ups and three tertiary finishes among 27 top 10s, but had not quite closed the deal. But with a sparkling, bogey-free 8-under 64, Kokrak outdueled four-time Tour Champion Xander Schauffele down the stretch to win the CJ Cup at Shadow Creek.
It was the second consecutive week a tournament was held in Las Vegas, a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that moved the CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges away from the Jeju Island, South Korea location it has held the previous three seasons. But this was nothing resembling the field of last week’s Shriners Hospitals For Children Open.
Shadow Creek hosted an absurdly strong field, one that would have had the entire top-5 in the OWGR had Dustin Johnson not tested positive for coronavirus at the beginning of the week. This was a near-elite field that Kokrak stared down and didn’t blink.
Final Top-5 Finishers
Pos-Player-To Par (Final Rd)
1. Jason Kokrak -20 (-8)
2. Xander Schauffele -18 (-6)
3. Tyrrell Hatton -17 (-7)
3. Russell Henley -17 (-2)
5. Talor Gooch -16 (-4)
The CJ Cup Field
Even without world No. 1 Jon Rahm, the field in Las Vegas is stacked with 36 of the world’s top-50 ranked players, headlined by 17 marquee names who competed in the recent Ryder Cup matches at Whistling Straits.
Some of those stars include Dustin Johnson, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, Xander Schauffele, Jordan Spieth, Sergio Garcia, Viktor Hovland, Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy.
The three winners of the 2022 wrap-round season – Max Homa (Fortinet), Sam Burns (Sanderson) and Sungjae Im (Shriners) – will also tee it up this week.
Other top-ranked players in the field include Hideki Matsuyama, Tony Finau, Tyrrell Hatton, Scottie Scheffler, Harris English, Abraham Ancer, Louis Oosthuizen, Patrick Reed, Cameron Smith and Webb Simpson.
Additional marquee names include Jason Day, Justin Rose, Kevin Kisner and Gary Woodland, among others.
Top-5 Betting Favorites
1. Dustin Johnson (12-1)
1. Justin Thomas (12-1)
1. Xander Schauffele (12-1)
4. Collin Morikawa (16-1)
5. Rory McIlroy (18-1)
Field: Rank and Odds
The CJ Cup | The Summit Club | Las Vegas, NV | Oct. 14-17, 2021
Tee Times, Pairings
Marquee Pairings
Published upon release…