The CJ Cup Byron Nelson 2026 Golf Preview And Picks

The CJ Cup Byron Nelson 2026 golf tournament tees off May 21 at TPC Craig Ranch, a 7,385 yard par 71 course just 30 miles North of Dallas. Some top Dallas-area pros are in the 145-player field including world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who won the event by 8-strokes last year and is an overwhelming 2/1 favorite to win again. Scheffler is joined by Dallas residents Jordan Spith and Si Woo Kim, Tom Kim, Zecheng (Marty) Dou and nearby Plano resident Pierceson Coody. They’ll be shooting for the top prize of $1.78 million from a prize pool of $9.9 million.

TPC Craig Ranch is one of the easier courses on Tour with wide open fairways, fewer penalty hazards and larger receptive greens that turns into a putting contest, which Scheffler won last year with a -31 under par total of 253. Lanny Watkins did a redesign of of the 2004 Tom Weiskopf-designed Craig Ranch after last year’s event. The course has completely redesigned and repositioned bunkers, resurfaced and recontoured greens for more pin options. New grass turf was added, fairway corridores tightened, and No. 18 converted from a par 5 to longer par 4, and No. 12 a shortened par 5.

Stats, strokes gained and key categories to consider include:

• SG: Total, Easier scoring conditions
• SG: Approach
• Birdies or Better Gained
• Proximity 200+ yards
• Drivin Distance
• SG: Putting (Bent)
• The three par 5’s are all reachable in two shots, and scoring averaged 4.44 on those holes in the 2025 event.

The CJ Cup Byron Nelson 2026 Golf Odds

Leading favorites and contenders gold odds from Circa Sports and top online sportsbooks refresh periodically and are subject to change, including on props and live betting. There is also a betting market to win without Scheffler.

• +190: Scheffler
• +1400: Si Woo Kim
• +1850: Spieth
• +2700: Koepka
• +4000: Hisatsune
• +4400: Thorbjornsen, D. Thompson
• +4600: Coody
• +4800: K. Mitchell
• +5000: Pendrith
• +5200: W. Clark
• +6000: Meissner, R. Hojgaard, Sungjae Im, Cole
•  +6500: Eckroat, Bezuidenhout, B. Brown, Brennan
• +6700: Hoey
• +7500: Jaeger, Greyserman, T. Kim
• +8000: Z. Dou, J. Smith, M. Schmid, Olesen

72-hole winning score: 260.5 (Par 71)

Others to watch include William Sides, senior at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas who hits right-handed and puts left-handed. Sides is one of the top-ranked amateurs in the world. He also just qualified for the 2026 U.S. Open. Preston Stout, a junior at Oklahoma State who’s ranked No. 2 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, just won the Big 12 individual championship for a record third time.

Tournament Matchups And Props

Select leading online sportsbooks offer an extensive range of 72-hole head-to-head player tournament matchups each week, along with select round-by-round matchups. Here are some of the notable tournament matchups and players to watch at The CJ Cup Byron Nelson from Circa Sports.

• Scheffler (-660) vs. Koepka (+495)
• Si Woo Kim (-190) vs. Ryo Hisatsune (+165)
• Spieth (-157) vs. Thompson (+137)
• Cole (-116) vs. Eckroat (-104)
• Brown (-123) vs. Dou (+103)
• Coody (-115) vs. Mitchell (-115)
• Clark (-122) vs. J. Smith (+102)
• R. Hojgaard (-132) vs. Schmid (+112)
• Greyserman (-123) vs. Rodgers (+103(
• Sunjae Im (-113) vs. Rico Hoey (-107)

Following last week’s PGA Championship and top player profiles with major longshot winner Aaron Rai among the stats leaders, we shoot for more tournament matchups winners after a 3-2 result (+1.43) in the PGA Championship and now 18-8 this year.

The CJ Cup Byron Nelson Picks

Fairway’s Favorites: Si Woo Kim, Spieth, Thompson
Fairway’s Longshots: Tom Kim, Bezuidenhout, Cole, Greyserman, Jaeger
Fairway’s Flyers: Zecheng (Marty) Dou, Adrien Dumont de Chassart

Tournament matchups: Pass
Check back for any round-by-round matchups.

A 70% chance of rain Thursday and likely thunderstorms, so check back as we evaluate matchups, tee times and weather further and post any recommendations later Wednesday.

Next week it’s the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial CC in Fort Worth where Ben Griffin (-12) won last year.

Golf Betting Notes and History from FairwayJay

My golf coverage and research includes use and references from sites at Data Golf along with Fantasy National, and others. I gain added information from handicappers, analysts, colleagues and media members while researching course stats and previews with previous weekly coverage in my PGA tournament updates in Forbes. That includes top golf insider Justin Ray Golf, who contributes to PGA Tour (dot com) and The Athletic with insightful stats. The site GolfStats has also has player performance charts and a player competitor tool plus added stats and previews.

I’ve added my own player profiles pieces for select majors and events including 2026 Masters, 2026 Players Championship,  2025 Masters, 2025 Players Championship and trends. You can review those alogn with others from 2024 in Forbes for The Player Championship and Masters top 9 and top 18 golfers plus 12 top golfers at the Open Championship at Royal Troon.