GOLF
Why isn’t Scottie Scheffler playing in the 2024 Byron Nelson?
The World No.1 missed the Zurich Classic team tournament at TPC Louisiana and has a good reason to be excused from this week’s event at TPC Craig Ranch.
The world’s top-ranked golfer Scottie Scheffler won’t be among the 156 players in the field for this weekend’s 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson at TPC Craig Ranch.
Scheffler has won four of his last five tournaments, adding The Heritage to his second green jacket at The Masters in Augusta, which followed on from wins at The Players Championship and Arnold Palmer Invitational. He was tied second in the Texas Children’s Houston Open but opted out of last week’s Zurich Classic team tournament at TPC Louisiana which saw winning pair Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry take home $1,286,050 each.
Scheffler’s name didn’t appear in the list when the 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson field was released on Friday. Nevertheless, he remains the No. 1 ranked player in the Official World Golf Rankings for the 50th consecutive week. It took him 51 tournaments to win his 10th PGA Tour title following his first win. Tiger Woods did it in 59 events with David Duval the fastest from wins 1 to 10 at 33 starts.
New addition to the family
Scheffler has a good reason to be excused for his golfing activities. His wife Meredith is due to give birth to the couple’s first child imminently and the father understandably wants to be there when it happens. He even told reporters at the Masters that he would head straight home at a moment’s notice if his wife went into labor.
Speaking ahead of the RBC Heritage, Scheffler said: “Up until when the baby comes, I’m going to play this week and then I’ll go home and basically just wait. We’re due at the end of the month. Like I said last week, golf now is - it never was my top priority, but I do love competing, and I put in the work. It’s going to take another notch down in priority when our child comes. My family still comes first, and we’ll see how the prep work goes. Pregnancy’s weird - it can happen at any time”.
CJ Cup Byron Nelson bookmakers' odds
- Jordan Spieth: +1400
- Si Woo Kim: +1600
- Jason Day: +2000
- Alex Noren: +2200
- Adam Scott: +2200
- Tom Hoge: +2500
- Stephan Jaeger: +2500
- Min Woo Lee: +2500
- Byeong Hun An: +2500
- Tom Kim: +2800
- Sungjae Im: +2800
Who is in the CJ Cup Byron Nelson?
With Scheffler occupied elsewhere and Rory McIlroy not competing, Jason Day is setting his sights on back-to-back wins in Texas although Jordan Spieth heads into the tournament as the bookmakers’ favorite at +1400 ahead of Si Woo Kim at +1600 and Day at +2000.
The 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson gets underway Thursday 2 May with coverage starting at 7:45 a.m. and runs to Sunday 5 May at TPC Craig Ranch, a 7,414-yard par-71 track featuring Bentgrass greens in McKinney, Texas.
Viewers in the United States can watch the event live on the streaming service ESPN+. The Golf Channel/Peacock will also be airing three hours of the competition from 4-7 p.m. ET.