Here is what the Top-10 finishers at the CJ Cup took home from Shadow Creek Country Club.
10th Place: Harris English
$263,250.
9th Place: Sebastian Munoz
$282,750.
T – 7th Place: Bubba Watson + Lanto Griffin
$314,438.
6th Place: Joaquin Niemann
$351,000.
5th Place: Talor Gooch
$390,000.
T – 3rd Place: Tyrrell Hatton + Russell Henley
$565,500.
2nd Place: Xander Schauffele
$1,053,000.
1st Place: Jason Kokrak
$1,755,000
Here is what the Top-10 finishers at the CJ Cup took home from Shadow Creek Country Club.
10th Place: Harris English
$263,250.
9th Place: Sebastian Munoz
$282,750.
T – 7th Place: Bubba Watson + Lanto Griffin
$314,438.
6th Place: Joaquin Niemann
$351,000.
5th Place: Talor Gooch
$390,000.
T – 3rd Place: Tyrrell Hatton + Russell Henley
$565,500.
2nd Place: Xander Schauffele
$1,053,000.
1st Place: Jason Kokrak
$1,755,000
Schauffele fired a final-round 66 but it wasn’t enough to keep pace with playing competitor Jason Kokrak.
Xander Schauffele will look back at the CJ Cup at Shadow Creek as another one that got away.
Schauffele, who was seeking his fifth PGA Tour title, climbed the leaderboard with four birdies on his front nine, and shot a final-round 6-under 66. The only problem was his fellow playing competitor Jason Kokrak was having a day, making seven birdies on his first 11 holes en route to his first PGA Tour victory.
“It was a good fight,” said Schauffele, who came up two strokes short in recording his sixth runner-up finish since his last victory at the 2019 Sentry Tournament of Champions.
Indeed, it was. The third player in the grouping with Kokrak and Schauffele, who both sprinted past 54-hole leader Russell Henley, was former World No. 1 Jason Day, who withdrew with neck stiffness on the second hole.
“Kokrak’s about a foot taller than I am, so we’re doing our old-man shuffle walking around, trying to walk as slow as possible, stall,” Schauffele said. “We talked all day. I think I was lucky and so was he, we got along really well and we definitely fed off each other and it definitely showed in our scores.”
It looked like Schauffele, World No. 8 and the more experienced of the two pros in crunch time, was destined to hoist a trophy on Sunday after he canned a 46-foot birdie putt from the fringe at No. 13 for his third straight circle on the scorecard and tied Kokrak with five holes to go. That, however, turned out to be Schauffele’s last birdie of the round.
He will certainly rue his finish on the final three holes. Schauffele made a costly bogey at the par-5 16th hole to fall out of the lead. He drove left into trouble, was forced to lay up and missed a 20-foot par putt to fall out of the lead.
“There was a woodchip underneath, kind of part of it was touching the ball,” Schauffele said of his lie on his second shot at 16. “It was one of those, if I were to pull it, my ball would have moved, so I just assumed just swing through it. There was a little branch behind me, but I think a woodchip did fly out. I didn’t really feel a whole lot of ball when I hit. It was, I don’t want to call it a bad break, but I did hit my driver in the tree well there, so all I have to do is hit the fairway and it would have been a different story.”
Schauffele overshot the par-3 17th green and had to scramble for par, and missed a 10-foot birdie putt at the last that could’ve elevated the pressure on Kokrak to close out his first win in his 232nd Tour start.
“He pushed me. It was a nice duel between the two of us,” Kokrak said. “It makes it even more special that I beat a player of Xander’s ability.”
As for Schauffele, his game remains a model of consistency as the Masters approaches. He posted 18-under 268 and notched his third consecutive top-five finish and his 10th consecutive top 25 and 21st top-25 in his past 24 starts. He also finished 20th or better in all five major Strokes Gained categories: 20th/Off the Tee, 4th/Tee to Green, 16th/Approach the Green, 5th/Around the Green, 3rd/Putting). He should be considered one of the favorites at Augusta National, where he finished tied for second last year in just his second start. Kokrak, who shot bogey-free 64 and enjoyed the best putting week of his career, had a tournament to remember. Despite the sluggish finish on Sunday, Schauffele chalked it up to a missed opportunity on Saturday when he squandered the 36-hole lead and said he’ll look at it as a learning experience.
“The biggest takeaway for me is this is the first time after two rounds of golf I had a three-shot lead. Obviously I showed it, showed a rookie move there shooting 74 on Saturday, on moving day,” he said. “But I think for me personally, just to know that my really good golf is that good, it will get me a three-, four-shot lead out here, it’s nice to know that I do have it in me to do it and hopefully I learn next time and I can create an opportunity.”
The longtime caddie for Jordan Spieth left Las Vegas after his mother passed away Saturday morning.
NORTH LAS VEGAS – Michael Greller, longtime caddie for Jordan Spieth, left Las Vegas after his mother, Jane, passed away Saturday morning.
Greller, a former math teacher, has teamed with Spieth for three major championships, 14 professional wins and a Player of the Year campaign in 2015.
Greller was replaced on Spieth’s bag for the third round of the CJ Cup at Shadow Creek by Preston Valder, an associate of Patrick Cantlay.
Greller set up the John and Jane Greller Scholarship fund in 2019 after his father, a two-time organ-transplant survivor, passed on Feb. 19, 2019. That year, Greller’s fellow caddies presented him a $25,000 check for the fund.
World No. 1 Dustin Johnson is out of the CJ Cup at Shadow Creek after testing positive for COVID-19.
NORTH LAS VEGAS – World No. 1 Dustin Johnson withdrew Tuesday from the CJ Cup at Shadow Creek after testing positive for COVID-19.
According to a release from the PGA Tour, Johnson started experiencing symptoms and notified the PGA Tour. He had a COVID-19 test and the result forced him to withdraw.
“Obviously, I am very disappointed,” Johnson said according to the statement. “I was really looking forward to competing this week but will do everything I can to return as quickly as possible. I have already had a few calls with the Tour’s medical team and appreciate all the support and guidance that have given me.”
Johnson, who won three times last season and was the FedEx Cup champion, is in self-isolation. In his last five starts – two in majors – his worst finish was a tie for sixth. Alternate J.T. Poston replaced Johnson in the field.
Earlier on Tuesday, world No. 17 Tony Finau, who withdrew from last week’s Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas after testing positive for COVID-19, withdrew from the CJ Cup. He was replaced in the 78-man field by alternate Robbie Shelton.
Justin Thomas has upped his workout schedule in hopes of packing on muscle and generating more distance, but he’s doing it his way.
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Like Goose in the 1980s classic film Top Gun, Justin Thomas says he has a need for speed.
“I just want some more speed,” he said during his pre-tournament press conference ahead of the CJ Cup in Las Vegas. “I feel like I’ve been good at having another gear, another 5 or 10 yards if I need it, but I don’t necessarily have that other 20.”
Thomas, 27, averaged 304 yards off the tee last season, good for 34th on Tour, so length isn’t necessarily a concern for him, but it just goes to show how distance is king at golf’s highest level.
How Thomas chases it may differ from that of Bryson DeChambeau who has gone undergone a physical transformation over the past year, but they are both in search of the same thing.
“I’m not going to put on 40 pounds, I don’t have the height to do that,” Thomas said. “I’m going to look like a beach ball if I put on 40 pounds. I can get stronger in different parts of my body that can help me hit it farther and gain some distance, but I hit it plenty far enough to win tournaments and do well.”
Justin Thomas poses with the trophy after winning the CJ Cup at Nine Bridges at the Club at Nine Bridges on October 20, 2019 in Jeju, South Korea. (Photo: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
Instead, Thomas is emphasizing an exercise routine focused on his lower body while trying to maintain flexibility and mobility in his hips.
“I’m not far off. It’s really about messing with some different stuff and different training and explosiveness to be able to pick up something,” he said. “There’s different ways to do it. I mean, the absolute No. 1 thing is I’m continuing to stay injury free and I’m continuing to progress in a good direction in terms of staying healthy and staying fit. But if I can do that while incorporating some more speed, then that’s big.”
Thomas said he got into the best shape of his life during the Tour’s three-month suspension of play when he was able to workout five times a week, lifting heavier weights, and getting regular treatment from his physical therapist. When the Tour season resumed in June, he found it challenging to maintain that same routine.
“I was as strong as I’ve ever been,” he said. “Once we came back out, we’re going to 90, 95-degree weeks and it’s humid and we’re walking six, seven, eight miles a day. I think when I got back from the Tour Championship I had lost like 13 or 14 pounds from when we started at Colonial. It’s just hard to maintain that routine and all that muscle.”
“It was the lowest I’ve been in a while,” Thomas said of his weight. “I was at 151 when I got back from Atlanta. It was a tough scene.”
Thomas, a two-time CJ Cup champion, returns to defend after shooting 20-under 268 at Nine Bridges Golf Club at Jeju Island in South Korea. But due to the global pandemic, he makes his defense at Shadow Creek Golf Club in Las Vegas.
“I can’t imagine being much farther apart,” Thomas said. “It has the same vibes and seeing the same people involved with the tournament. I even had some Korean barbecue for lunch yesterday, which was still incredible.”
Despite the new venue, Thomas brings a bit of experience to the table. He recalled missing the cut at the 2014 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open and playing Shadow Creek the next day. And little did he know at the time that the CJ Cup would be moved here, but in February, ahead of the Genesis Invitational in Los Angeles, he celebrated his mom’s 60th birthday in Las Vegas and prepped for the tournament at Shadow Creek. That could come in handy, though Thomas traditionally hasn’t needed much help during the fall portion of the schedule.
Four of his 13 wins on Tour have come in the fall; no other player has more than two wins during the fall since the Tour went to a wraparound season in 2013-14. Asked to explain his early-season success, Thomas shrugged his shoulders and said, “I’m not sure, but I’m happy the Masters is in the fall this year, so hopefully that will add something, some good vibes.”
