DraftKings PGA DFS Picks: THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson Cash and GPP Strategy

THE CJ CUP BYRON NELSON

Purse: $10.3M
Winner's Share: $1.854M
FedEx Cup Points: 500 to the Winner
Location: McKinney, Texas
Course: TPC Craig Ranch
Yardage: 7,385
Par: 71
2025 champion: Scottie Scheffler

Tournament Preview

It's a good thing the Byron Nelson takes place in Texas, because without Texans in the field, we'd have a hard time telling the players without a scorecard.

Scottie Scheffler -- the best golfer in the state of Texas and, for that matter, everywhere else in the world -- is back to defend his title. He's the only golfer ranked top-20 in the world in this 147-man field, and there are only three of the top 50. All have ties to the Lone Star State.

Weaker fields will be the norm for a bit since we have exited that congested chunk of majors and Signature Events. Regular PGA Tour events are on tap for three of the next four weeks, beginning with this second Texas two-step of the season. Following the Nelson will be the Charles Schwab at Colonial, then after the Memorial Signature Event, there's the Canadian Open before another swath of majors and sig events.

This week, three golfers are co-headlining with Scheffler. There's native son Jordan Spieth, back in the top-50 after almost a year. There's No. 24-ranked Si Woo Kim, who, while not an official Texan, is part of the big Korean contingent that has made the Dallas area their U.S. base. And there's Brooks Koepka, who, as far as we know, has no ties to Texas. But he continues to do his part to help prop up the lesser tournaments while still trying to play his way into Signature Events.

PGA Championship winner Aaron Rai was in the field published on Friday but predictably pulled out on Monday morning.

Other golfers in the field of (semi-)note include Wyndham Clark, Michael Thorbjornsen, Sungjae Im, Billy Horschel and 18-year-old Blades Brown, who played his way into the field via a top-10 at the Myrtle Beach Classic two weeks ago. Brown needs a solo 21st to accumulate the roughly 42.5 FedEx Cup points needed to earn him Special Temporary Membership on Tour through the end of the season.

The field is so weak that Tony Finau didn't even need a sponsor invite to get in (rim shot!!!!). This week's sponsor invites are so sponsor that most golf fans wouldn't even know them.

Jackson Buchanan, the former standout at the University of Illinois, is in the field as the 2025 winner of the Byron Nelson Award that goes to the outstanding graduating senior classman. The 24-year-old has been playing on the Korn Ferry Tour this season with minimal success.

The CJ Group is in the third year of a 10-year deal as title sponsor. The tournament is a good fit for the South Korean conglomerate. The Dallas area has become a U.S. hub of many Korean golfers, and they've done well in the Nelson. K.H. Lee is a two-time winner, while Sung Kang and Sang-moon Bae have also won it.

TPC Craig Ranch is back, re-upped through 2030 after its contract ran out after last year. The 2004 Tom Weiskopf design located about 35 miles north of Dallas underwent a rather large renovation since last year, under the direction of Hall of Famer Lanny Wadkins and his design firm.

Wadkins told The Dallas Morning News in December that "I think the members literally feel like they're getting a brand new golf course." He told the newspaper that the course has significantly more teeth tee to green, which could result in the winning score being in the low teens (if the wind blows right). That would be quite a change, considering it had no teeth all in the past. Scheffler destroyed the course last year to the tune of 31-under, though he did win by eight and the winning score in years past fell in the 23- to 26-under range.

The course is actually quite a bit shorter now, dropping almost 200 yards to 7,385 on the current scorecard. It's still a par-71 with three par-5s. The fifth hole is massive at 640 yards, but Nos. 8 and 12 are under 550. The 12th used to be a short par-5 when the course was a par-72, then it became a long par-4 as Craig Ranch became a 71, and this year it's back to a short par-5. The 18th used to be a par-5, but now it's a long par-4 at 480 yards.

All the grasses have been replaced. The fairways have narrowed. Bunkers have been redesigned, with some added and others replaced, and some strategically positioned beginning 315 yards down the fairway, according to Wadkins. The new greens averaging a large 6,800ish square feet feature a heat-resistant 777 Bentgrass that Wadkins said late last year were running about 10.5 on the Stimpmeter. There's water on 14 holes, much of it from Rowlett Creek, which runs through the property.

Three of the four par-3s exceed 200 yards. Of the 11 par-4s, two are under 400 yards, including the 320-yard 14th,  and five are 480 and up, including the 500-yard 8th. 

As for the weather, it's looking like a lot of rain. Thunderstorms are forecast every day but Friday. The most rain could come Thursday, so you'll want to check tee times closer to the lock. Otherwise, temperatures will be in the upper 70s to low 80s and, while the wind is forecast to be light, this is Texas.

Byron Nelson sponsor invite factoid: In 2019, playing at Trinity Forest, the struggling tournament brought in Tony Romo to add some juice. He missed the cut by a mere nine strokes, though that was actually better than four other real golfers who completed 36 holes.

Key Stats to Winning at TPC Craig Ranch

The most important indicators every week are current form and course history. "Key Stats" follow in importance.

• Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee/Driving Distance
• Strokes Gained: Approach/Tee-to-Green
• Par-3 Scoring, 200-225 yards
• Par-4 Scoring, 450-500 yards
• Strokes Gained: Putting

Past Champions

2025 - Scottie Scheffler (TPC Craig Ranch)
2024 - Taylor Pendrith (TPC Craig Ranch)
2023 - Jason Day (TPC Craig Ranch)
2022 - K.H. Lee (TPC Craig Ranch)
2021 - K.H. Lee (TPC Craig Ranch)
2020 - No Tournament
2019 - Sung Kang (Trinity Forest)
2018 - Aaron Wise (Trinity Forest)
2017 - Billy Horschel (TPC Four Seasons)
2016 - Sergio Garcia (TPC Four Seasons)

Champion's Profile

The course has undergone significant changes since last year, which was the fifth time that Craig Ranch was in play.

They were all big-time Texas shootouts and, despite Wadkins saying this course will play far tougher and the winning score could essentially be cut in half from Scheffler's 31-under last year, we'll believe that when we see it.

So we're still expecting a birdie-fest, which in our viewpoint means a winning score of at least 20-under.

Last year, Scheffler won by eight shots, so his stats were a bit extreme. But he ranked third in SG: Off-the-Tee, first in Approach, first in greens in regulation and sixth in SG: Putting. That compilation will win you a tournament, oh, 100 times out of 100.

Runner-up Erik van Rooyen ranked 10th in OTT, third in Approach, 14th in GIR and 23rd in Putting, which, frankly, could've won this tournament many weeks.

Two years ago, Pendrith ranked sixth in OTT, 38th in Approach and 14th in Putting and reached 23-under.

Let's not expect something too far from what we've seen over the past five years.

Golfodds.com puts the over/under on the winning score at 260.5 – 23.5 under par -- so they aren't buying what Wadkins is selling.

DRAFTKINGS VALUE PICKS

Based on Standard $50K Salary Cap

We're skipping Scheffler. Not because we don't like him -- if you asked us to pick a winner, we'd pick him. But at $14,800, and the field so weak in the $6,000s, it's almost impossible to roster a winnable 6-man lineup with Scheffler in it. 

$9,000-$9,900

Si Woo Kim - $9,400 (Winning odds at the DraftKings Sportsbook: +1275)
Kim is coming off a tie for 35th at the PGA Championship. Interestingly, it was his vaunted approach game that was way off and he putted decently. We're gonna chalk that up to the quirkiness of Aronimink. Kim has done quite well here -- 15th last year, 12th the year before and runner-up in 2023. Fun fact: Kim leads the Tour in birdies this season.

$8,000-$8,900

Rasmus Hojgaard - $8,900 (+5400)  
Hojgaard has had to play in the shadow of his twin brother this season. While he hasn't been as good as Nicolai Hojgaard, his stats paint a picture of a golfer playing pretty well. Hojgaard is ranked 51st in SG: Approach, 23rd in Putting and 30th in Total, so it's a mystery why he has just one top-10 and three top-25s.

Eric Cole - $8,100 (+8600)  
It hasn't been a good season for Cole, who didn't qualify for the PGA Championship. But he's played his best golf of late, tying for 14th at the Valero and then for sixth at the opposite-field Myrtle Beach Classic. His SG: Approach rank (58th) and SG: Putting rank (18th) are far above average on Tour. His driving has been disastrous -- very short and highly inaccurate. But yet he's in the 8,000s. That's how weak this field is.

$7,000-$7,900

Blades Brown - $7,800 (+8000)  
The 18-year-old Brown is ninth in points on the Korn Ferry Tour. He's also made 5 of 6 cuts on the PGA Tour, with two top-10s and three top-20s. The top-10s came at opposite-field events, but he also tied for 19th at The Amex birdie-fest back in January. Brown is gaining strokes on approach and putting. He needs a solo 21st to earn Special Temporary Membership, and then he could pretty much get a sponsor invite into almost every remaining tournament.

Stephan Jaeger - $7,700 (+7200)  
Jaeger was on top of the leaderboard for a bit last week at the PGA before tying for 18th. He's a long driver also ranked top-25 in Around-the-Green and top-50 in Putting. Jaeger tied for 20th here two years ago and for 11th in 2023, making the past four Craig Ranch cuts.

Austin Eckroat - $7,500 (+9800)  
Eckroat was runner-up here in 2023 and missed the cut last year. In his past two stroke-play starts, he tied for 10th at the Valero and for 19th at Myrtle Beach. Eckroat is a shorter hitter who makes up for it with precision iron play. He's ranked 13th on Tour in SG: Approach and top-50 in Tee-to-Green.

Adrien Dumont de Chassart - $7,400 (+10000)  
The 26-year-old Belgian has made 8 of 10 stroke-play cuts this season with a best of T12 at Houston. Somehow, Dumont de Chassart is ranked 42nd on Tour in SG: Total. He's top-80 in both Approach and Putting, and an elite fourth Around-the-Green. He played Craig Ranch once before, tying for 36th two years ago. He's a far better golfer now.

John Parry - $7,300 (+11500)  
The 39-year-old Englishman is enjoying a superb rookie season after coming over from the DP World Tour. He's a perfect 12 for 12 in cuts, including last week at the PGA. Parry is ranked 30th in SG: Approach and sixth in greens in regulation.

Karl Vilips - $7,200 (+18000)  
Vilips got it to 18-under a The Amex, so we know he can go low. He tied for 19th at the Houston Open, so he can play in the Texas wind. He tied for 24th last week at Myrtle Beach, so he's on form. The 24-year-old from Indonesia who attended Stanford is ranked 70th on Tour in SG: Approach, which is very good in this field, and 10th in SG: Putting, which is very good in any field. He's also ranked 33rd in birdie average.

$6,000-$6,900

Pontus Nyholm - $6,800 (+24000)  
Ever heard of him? Nyholm is a 28-year-old Swede who graduated from the Korn Ferry Tour. He's made only four cuts this season, but they've all come in his past seven starts and three of them resulted in top-20s. One of them even took place in Texas, at the Houston Open. Nyholm is one of the longest drivers on Tour. He also has touch, ranking top-50 in SG: Around-the-Green and leading the Tour in approach proximity from 50-125 yards. That ain't nothing. Anyhoo, he popped a bit in our model, so here we are.

Adam Schenk - $6,400 (+47000)  
Finding a lineup-worthy golfer in this field at $6,500 or lower was not easy. We don't recommend trying that at home. Schenk has not had a good year. In fact, he hasn't had a good few years. But for some reason, Craig Ranch agrees with him. Schenk tied for fifth here last year and for 13th in 2024. He's made the cut 4 of the 5 years the tournament has been played there. 

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