2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson: Power Rankings, Prize Money, Defending Champion, and Major Details

For the third event in Texas, the PGA Tour will be returning to the TPC Craig Ranch, the home of CJ Cup Byron Nelson since 2021. It will be packed with 156 players from the PGA Tour aiming to get their spots for the next signature event, the Wells Fargo Championship, through exemplary performances in McKinney, Texas.

The event will last for the usual four days, starting on May 2nd, and after the 36-hole cut is made, only the top 70 and ties will be in for the weekend rounds. Who will be the top golfer who may have a chance to win the CJ Cup Byron Nelson 2024?

Top 5 contenders for CJ Cup: Byron Nelson

The CJ Cup Byron Nelson has a long 80-year history attached to it. The event was first started as the Dallas Open and was only renamed Byron Nelson Golf Classic in 1968. Over the last eight decades, many players have won the event. This year, some of the past champions in the field are Adam Scott and K.H. Lee (2021 and 2022), joined by young talents like Min Woo Lee, 3-time PGA Tour winner Tom Kim, and 2024 American Express winner Nick Dunlap. However, the best of the rest is below:

1. Stephan Jaeger: The 34-year-old remains the only golfer on the PGA Tour to defeat Scottie Scheffler in the 2024 season. Stephan Jaeger won the 2024 season. Stephan Jaeger clinched his maiden victory at the Texas Children’s Houston Open after scoring the final round of 3 under 67 with a stroke lead for the victory.

On top of that, the German pro has had five top-25 finishes in the 2024 season in the 11 events played; the latest one was at the RBC Heritage. Jaeger has found his charm on the Tour and he might not be far away from contesting for a second PGA Tour title.

2. Will Zalatoris: After nearly a year-long hiatus, Will Zalatoris has made a solid comeback. Though he opened the season with a missed cut at the Sony Hawaii Open, he soon followed it with a T13 at the Farmers Insurance Open. At the very next event, Zalatoris bagged T2 at the Genesis Invitational. So far this season, the 1-time PGA Tour winner has made three top-10 finishes.

Out of all, the most notable was the T9 finish at the 88th Masters, when many top players like Justin Thomas, Wyndham Clark, and Dustin Johnson missed the cut. It had been two years since he last won on the PGA Tour (2-22 FedEx St. Jude Championship), so it might be a great chance to win again in Texas.

3. Jordan Spieth: The 2024 season had not been particularly favorable for Jordan Spieth. On one hand, he has missed three cuts; on the other, he has finished in the top-10 three times: the Sentry, the WM Phoenix Open, and the Valero Texas Open. Moreover, Spieth is also the highest-ranked player in the field at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson. He has started to get a hold of his game and was T39 at the RBC Heritage.

Last year, he had to withdraw from the event as he suffered from a wrist injury. Prior to that, the three-time major winner was a runner-up in 2022. So this time, when things are slowly getting better, Spieth might be able to win on the PGA Tour after the 2022 RBC Heritage victory.

4. Tom Hoge: The 34-year-old is probably the underdog at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson. Hoge has played 13 events in the 2024 season and missed the cut only two times. He had also finished in the top 25 seven times before. With his best record of T6 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am this season, Hoge might need just one more push to win his second PGA Tour event after a lone victory at the 2022 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

5. Alex Noren: The only player on the list to not miss a single cut in any event, Alex Noren has been playing incredibly well in the 2024 season. The 41-year-old pro has a total of six top-25 finishes this season. Five of them were consecutive from the T9 at the Cognizant Classic and the last was the T23 at the Corales Puntacana Championship.

Furthermore, Noren has been ranked in greens in regulation and first in scrambling on the PGA Tour, which has helped him to have consecutive events without missing a cut. Noren now might have an opportunity to win for the first time on the PGA Tour.

Defending champion and prize money of CJ Cup Byron Nelson

Jason Day started his 2024 season with a bang that handed him a T10 and his first top-10 finish for the year. So far, the 13-time PGA Tour winner has played ten events and made two more top-10 finishes: T6 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and a solo 9th at the Genesis Invitational.

In 2023, Day won the then-AT&T Byron Nelson to break his five-year winless drought on the PGA Tour. This time he is coming off a recent top-20 finish, T18 at the RBC Heritage, and looks to be in form. The 36-year-old will aim once again to take the $1.71 million winner’s payout from the $9.5 million prize money of the CJ Cup Byron Nelson.

If Day does go on to win the event, he will join Sam Snead, the only player to win the CJ Cup Byron Nelson three times in his career. Day first won the event back in 2010, when it was known as the HP Bryson Nelson Championship. Who will come out victorious in Longhorn State this week? Stay tuned to find out!