Unlike last month’s Masters, there is no big-money, no-cut signature event on the PGA Tour after the PGA Championship—but there is an event with plenty of history.
The CJ Cup Byron Nelson dates to 1944, when the Texas golf legend won what was called the Texas Victory Open by 10 strokes (!) over Jug McSpaden. For that romp, Nelson won $2,000 from a $10,000 purse.
Times have changed—the purse this week at TPC Craig Ranch is a hair over $10 million—yet in some ways have not. The defending champion is Scottie Scheffler, another Texas golf legend (already) who won by eight shots.
The world No. 1—at the event where he played 11 years earlier as a high school senior—shot 31 under with a final-round 63 to tie the PGA Tour 72-hole scoring record at 259. After, he was in tears.
“This tournament means a lot to me,” Scheffler said. “It’s my first start as a pro 11 years ago. I had my sister caddying for me … It feels like a lifetime of hard work and sacrifice for little moments like these, and they’re pretty special.”
Scheffler will defend without many of his top-ranked peers around to challenge. Fellow Dallas resident Si Woo Kim, ranked No. 22 in the world prior to the PGA Championship, is the next highest-ranked in the OWGR. Nicolai Højgaard is the only other player in the top 30.
Past champions in the field include Taylor Pendrith, K.H. Lee, Aaron Wise and Billy Horschel.
Host course TPC Craig Ranch is a 7,385-yard par-71 Tom Weiskopf design, and birdies will be flying.
2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson full field
145 players
Bae, Yongjun +
Bauchou, Zach
Bezuidenhout, Christiaan
Blair, Zac
Blanchet, Chandler
Brehm, Ryan
Brennan, Michael
Brown, Blades
Brown, Daniel
Buchanan, Jackson
Campos, Rafael
Chatfield, Davis
Clanton, Luke
Clark, Wyndham
Cole, Eric
Coody, Pierceson
Crowe, Trace
Dahmen, Joel
Davis, Cam
Dou, Zecheng
Dumont de Chassart, Adrien
Duncan, Tyler
Dunlap, Nick
Eckroat, Austin
Ewart, A.J.
Finau, Tony
Fishburn, Patrick
Fisk, Steven
Ford, David
Garnett, Brice
Ghim, Doug
Greyserman, Max
Griffin, Lanto
Grillo, Emiliano
Hadwin, Adam
Hahn, James
Hardy, Nick
Headley, Adam #
Higgo, Garrick
Higgs, Harry
Highsmith, Joe
Hirata, Kensei
Hisatsune, Ryo
Hodges, Lee
Hoey, Rico
Hoffman, Charley
Hoge, Tom
Højgaard, Nicolai
Højgaard, Rasmus
Horschel, Billy
Hossler, Beau
Hubbard, Mark
Hughes, Mackenzie
Im, Sungjae
Jaeger, Stephan
Kanaya, Takumi
Kang, Jeffrey
Keefer, Johnny
Kim, Chan
Kim, Michael
Kim, Si Woo
Kim, Tom
Kirk, Chris
Kizzire, Patton
Koepka, Brooks
Kohles, Ben
Kuchar, Matt
Laird, Martin
Lamprecht, Christo
Lebioda, Hank
Lee, K.H.
Li, Haotong
Lower, Justin
Malnati, Peter
Martin, Ben
McGreevy, Max
Meissner, Mac
Merritt, Troy
Mitchell, Keith
Montgomery, Taylor
Moore, Taylor
Mouw, William
Nakajima, Keita
Neergaard-Petersen, Rasmus
Norlander, Henrik
Nyholm, Pontus
Olesen, Thorbjørn
Palmer, Ryan +
Parry, John
Paul, Jeremy
Pavon, Matthieu
Pendrith, Taylor
Penge, Marco
Peterson, Paul
Phillips, Chandler
Potgieter, Aldrich
Power, Seamus
Putnam, Andrew
Rai, Aaron
Ramey, Chad
Riley, Davis
Rodgers, Patrick
Roy, Kevin
Rozo, Marcelo
Ryder, Sam
Saddier, Adrien
Sargent, Gordon
Scheffler, Scottie
Schenk, Adam
Schmid, Matti
Shipley, Neal
Silverman, Ben
Simpson, Webb
Skinns, David
Smith, Jordan
Spieth, Jordan
Springer, Hayden
Stanger, Jimmy
Stout, Preston +
Streb, Robert
Streelman, Kevin
Suber, Jackson
Svensson, Adam
Svensson, Jesper
Thompson, Davis
Thorbjornsen, Michael
Tosti, Alejandro
van Rooyen, Erik
VanDerLaan, John
Vegas, Jhonattan
Ventura, Kris
Vilips, Karl
Villegas, Camilo
Walker, Danny
Whaley, Vince
Willett, Danny
Wise, Aaron
Wu, Dylan
Young, Carson
Yu, Kevin
+ - Sponsor exemption
# - Section champion
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as 2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson Full Field: Scottie Scheffler Returns to Defend Title.
