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2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson Full Field: Scottie Scheffler Returns to Defend Title

The world No. 1 torched TPC Craig Ranch in record fashion last year in an emotional win.
Scottie Scheffler tied a PGA Tour scoring mark with a 31-under 259 effort at the 2025 CJ Cup Byron Nelson.
Scottie Scheffler tied a PGA Tour scoring mark with a 31-under 259 effort at the 2025 CJ Cup Byron Nelson. | Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images

Unlike last month’s Masters, there is no big-money, no-cut signature event on the PGA Tour after the PGA Championship—but there is an event with plenty of history.

The CJ Cup Byron Nelson dates to 1944, when the Texas golf legend won what was called the Texas Victory Open by 10 strokes (!) over Jug McSpaden. For that romp, Nelson won $2,000 from a $10,000 purse.

Times have changed—the purse this week at TPC Craig Ranch is a hair over $10 million—yet in some ways have not. The defending champion is Scottie Scheffler, another Texas golf legend (already) who won by eight shots.

The world No. 1—at the event where he played 11 years earlier as a high school senior—shot 31 under with a final-round 63 to tie the PGA Tour 72-hole scoring record at 259. After, he was in tears.

“This tournament means a lot to me,” Scheffler said. “It’s my first start as a pro 11 years ago. I had my sister caddying for me … It feels like a lifetime of hard work and sacrifice for little moments like these, and they’re pretty special.”

Scheffler will defend without many of his top-ranked peers around to challenge. Fellow Dallas resident Si Woo Kim, ranked No. 22 in the world prior to the PGA Championship, is the next highest-ranked in the OWGR. Nicolai Højgaard is the only other player in the top 30.

Past champions in the field include Taylor Pendrith, K.H. Lee, Aaron Wise and Billy Horschel.

Host course TPC Craig Ranch is a 7,385-yard par-71 Tom Weiskopf design, and birdies will be flying.

2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson full field

147 players

Bae, Yongjun +

Bauchou, Zach

Bezuidenhout, Christiaan

Blair, Zac

Blanchet, Chandler

Brehm, Ryan

Brennan, Michael

Brown, Blades

Brown, Daniel

Buchanan, Jackson

Byrd, Jonathan

Campos, Rafael

Champ, Cameron

Chatfield, Davis

Clanton, Luke

Clark, Wyndham

Cole, Eric

Coody, Pierceson

Cook, Austin

Crowe, Trace

Dahmen, Joel

Davis, Cam

Dou, Zecheng

Dumont de Chassart, Adrien

Duncan, Tyler

Dunlap, Nick

Eckroat, Austin

Ewart, A.J.

Finau, Tony

Fishburn, Patrick

Fisk, Steven

Garnett, Brice

Ghim, Doug

Gomez, Fabian

Goodwin, Noah

Gordon, Will

Greyserman, Max

Griffin, Lanto

Grillo, Emiliano

Hadwin, Adam

Hahn, James

Hardy, Nick

Headley, Adam #

Higgo, Garrick

Higgs, Harry

Highsmith, Joe

Hirata, Kensei

Hisatsune, Ryo

Hodges, Lee

Hoey, Rico

Hoffman, Charley

Hoge, Tom

Højgaard, Rasmus

Horschel, Billy

Hossler, Beau

Howell, Mason +

Hubbard, Mark

Hughes, Mackenzie

Im, Sungjae

Jaeger, Stephan

Kanaya, Takumi

Kang, Jeffrey

Keefer, Johnny

Kim, Chan

Kim, Si Woo

Kim, Tom

Kirk, Chris

Kizzire, Patton

Koepka, Brooks

Kohles, Ben

Kuchar, Matt

Laird, Martin

Lamprecht, Christo

Lebioda, Hank

Lee, K.H.

Li, Haotong

List, Luke

Lower, Justin

Malnati, Peter

Martin, Ben

McGreevy, Max

Meissner, Mac

Merritt, Troy

Mitchell, Keith

Montgomery, Taylor

Moore, Taylor

Mouw, William

Nakajima, Keita

Neergaard-Petersen, Rasmus

Noh, S.Y.

Norlander, Henrik

Nyholm, Pontus

Olesen, Thorbjørn

Palmer, Ryan

Parry, John

Paul, Jeremy

Pavon, Matthieu

Pendrith, Taylor

Peterson, Paul

Phillips, Chandler

Piercy, Scott

Power, Seamus

Ramey, Chad

Riley, Davis

Rodgers, Patrick

Roy, Kevin

Rozo, Marcelo

Ryder, Sam

Saddier, Adrien

Sargent, Gordon

Scheffler, Scottie

Schenk, Adam

Schmid, Matti

Shipley, Neal

Silverman, Ben

Skinns, David

Smith, Jordan

Spieth, Jordan

Springer, Hayden

Stanger, Jimmy

Stout, Preston +

Streb, Robert
Streelman, Kevin

Suber, Jackson

Svensson, Adam

Svensson, Jesper

Thompson, Davis

Thorbjornsen, Michael

Tosti, Alejandro

van Rooyen, Erik

VanDerLaan, John

Vegas, Jhonattan

Ventura, Kris

Vilips, Karl

Villegas, Camilo

Walker, Danny

Whaley, Vince

Willett, Danny

Wise, Aaron

Wu, Dylan

Young, Carson

Yu, Kevin

+ - Sponsor exemption

# - Section champion

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Published | Modified
John Schwarb
JOHN SCHWARB

John Schwarb is a senior editor for Sports Illustrated covering golf. Prior to joining SI in March 2022, he worked for ESPN.com, PGATour.com, Tampa Bay Times and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He is the author of The Little 500: The Story of the World’s Greatest College Weekend. A member of the Golf Writers Association of America, Schwarb has a bachelor’s in journalism from Indiana University.