This week’s PGA Tour stop, the first of two straight weeks in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, has become a big week for the South Korea natives on tour.
The Byron Nelson at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas, is entering its third year of a sponsorship deal with CJ Group, a Korean conglomerate that also sponsors several PGA players. Their blue, red and yellow logo appears on Sungjae Im’s hat each week he competes.
Now called the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, the tournament brings a Korean flair to the heart of Texas. The week is important for CJ Group; it’s just as important to Im.
“This is my third CJ Cup, and being that it’s my title sponsor, obviously there’s an added pressure to do well,” Im said Tuesday. “This course being low-scoring, yielding low scores, obviously I need to go low. So I need to play my best, but excited to be here as the title sponsor CJ CUP tournament.”
Im, Si Woo Kim and K.H. Lee are brand ambassadors for CJ and spoke at a joint press conference Tuesday. Lee won this tournament back-to-back in 2021-22 after countryman Sung-hoon Kang lifted the trophy in 2019. That, and the fact that Kim and some other Korean players make Dallas their home base during the season, made the sponsorship make perfect sense for CJ.
“Excited to be playing here. Then staying home in my bed is really good,” said Kim, who will be grouped with Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka for the first two rounds.
TPC Craig Ranch has undergone renovations since last year, when Scheffler ran away with the tournament by tying the PGA Tour scoring record of 31-under 253.
“I’ve heard there’s a lot of renovation,” Lee said. “Obviously another renovation, the green complexes. I only got to play nine holes, but a little bit different, a lot of undulation.”
“I played like three weeks ago one time here, and I played the new course,” Kim added. “It’s really changed with all the new greens. Excited to play. I have to kind of worry about where I have to miss.”
A Korean player has not won on tour since Tom Kim triumphed at the Shriners Children’s Open in October 2023. Tom Kim arrives at TPC Craig Ranch this week after playing a U.S. Open final qualifying tournament Monday at Dallas Athletic Club and coming in second overall, more than enough to earn a spot at next month’s major.
–Field Level Media
