The 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson is set to begin on Thursday at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney for the fourth consecutive year.
This tournament features 154 players guaranteed to compete in the first two days, with the top 65 players making the cut after the second day finishes on Friday.
Players will compete for a total purse of $9.5 million, with the winner receiving $1.7 million and 500 FedEx Cup points, per SportsLine.
The PGA Tour describes the FedEx Cup as a “season-long points competition which culminates with the FedExCup Playoffs, a series of three events to determine the FedExCup Champion.”
The top 70 players are then invited to the FedEx Cup Playoffs to compete for a $100 million purse at the end of the year, with the champion leaving the tournament with $25 million.
TPC Craig Ranch is one of the easier courses on the PGA Tour, with a total distance of 7,414 yards across all 18 holes, per Blue Golf.
Wide fairways allow players to get easy second shots with their irons, meaning that the key to victory for many will come from their ability to chip and putt once closer to the hole.
Last year’s Byron Nelson champion Jason Day finished the round 23 under par while 2022 champion K.H. Lee posted a score of 26 under par in his victory, according to Sports Illustrated.
Jordan Spieth enters the tournament with the best odds to win of any golfer at +1400, followed closely by Si Woo Kim with odds at +1600, according to Fox Sports.
Spieth has played in the Byron Nelson twice in the past, tying for ninth in the 2021 tournament and finishing second in 2022; he opted not to participate in the 2023 tournament.
Although Spieth enters the tournament as the betting favorite, he has struggled to keep pace in the last seven tournaments he has competed in, finishing inside the top 10 just once in those competitions, per CBS Sports.
Spieth missed the cut three times in the last seven tournaments and was disqualified in one tournament for signing the wrong score.
Day opens the tournament with the third-best odds to win at +2000, followed by Adam Scott and Alex Noren, tied for the fourth-best odds of winning at +2200, per Fox Sports.
