Moving Day at TPC Craig Ranch – 2024 THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson Round 3 Recap | The First Cut Podcast

Rick Gehman and Greg DuCharme recap the third round of the CJ CUP Byron Nelson from TPC Craig Ranch.

0:00 Intro
1:48 A Pair of 64s early in the day: Sung Kang, Kevin Tway
4:18 A few other Notables: Min Woo Lee & Stephan Jaeger
10:17 Top of the Leaderboard: Noren, Wallace, Kohles, Knapp and Pendrith
24:27 Betting Favorites

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ABOUT THE SHOW: The First Cut brings you everything you need to know in the world of professional golf. Nearly every day Rick Gehman, Kyle Porter, Mark Immelman, Greg DuCharme, Sia Nejad and Patrick McDonald bring you the best analysis in the game. From DFS to betting previews, interviews and recaps… everything golf is on the table when you listen to The First Cut.

freaking first cut golly welcome to the first cup podcast I’m Rick gaming and this is your round three recap for this week’s CJ cup Byron Nelson joining me to break it all down it’s Greg do charm hey Greg the CJ cup Byron Nelson very very uh cool birdies are flying I you got to go low out here Rick you got to get after it and boy some of them did today h a lot of them did today day two and a half Strokes under par was the scoring average that is the best of the week thus far so there were many making moves on moving day Greg we always like to say and tip our cap to the guy who shoots the rounds of the day we also like and well obviously tip our cap to the guy who is in the lead well both of those are the same guy so I’m gonna hold off on that and go to the second best round of the day that’s the pair of 64s one of them turned in by Sun Kang who has played just three events this year missed the cut in all three of those but he went out in 31 Greg he gave one back on number 12 he birdied 13 He eagled 14 so he shot a seven under 64 while not birding the easiest hole 18 and also making a Bogi yes um look this was a good round of golf by Sun Kang and it was absolutely the rest he hit a lot of highquality iron shots in there which is key but he he wasn’t necessarily stuffing it in there close but he took advantage of the par fives except for 18 the two on the front nine uh and and he made some 15 to 20 Footers but the good news for sun Kang was he gave himself a ton of those he was seventh in Strokes gain approach for the day um and and when you add in a a nice hole out eagle from left to the green at 14 that goes a long way towards 64 yeah certainly does go a long way the other 64 was Kevin TW now he got busy late in his round he birdied four of his final five holes and we are starting to see a little bit of a Resurgence out of Kevin TW Resurgence might be a strong word we are seeing a pulse from Kevin TW who finished third in punana 11th at the Zurich Classic and now entering Sunday he’s in a tie for seven yeah 11th at uh at the Zur classic with Kelly craft who is just ahead of him on on the leaderboard so very interesting to see some of the guys who played well in the team event playing well here as well uh Kevin TW got it going on the greens a little bit today he got him he got hot and he finished strong obviously with three birdies on the last three holes what’s so impressive about about him and why you kind of expect that he would do more than he does on the PGA tour is what he can do off the te yeah he was he was third in Strokes gain off the tea today um absolutely pounding it out there which was uh fun to watch so great to see Kevin TW back in Action making some birdies going out there and firing 64 the problem for both Sun Kang and Kevin T is that they posted their 13 under and 14 under respectively early in the day and everybody else just cracked them down so Sun Kang is in its high for 11th and Kevin TW is in a tie for seventh at 13 and 14 under just a quick notable here Greg because I want to get your thoughts on Min woo Lee who has gone 66 68 66 this week he had a very uh let him cook minwoo stretch where he made six consecutive birdies from five six7 8 n throw in 10 he actually made three bogeys today so I mean he filled it up uh and it was a two pencil day but you know minwoo had a lot of expectations coming into 2024 we were G to get him on the PGA tour for uh full-time for the first time he had a tied for second a runner-up finish at the cognizant early in the year he has not done much besides that and he would be and he was already pen in as a pretty key part of that President Cup team come this fall what’s the current outlook on Min Ry well he has a very clear skill set um and that’s aside from Charisma and class but his skill set is very clearly his power and speed off the T I mean the t- shot he hit at 14 today at 190 mph ball speed which is way up there he’s 124 mph Club head speed guy for the year on the PGA tour that is an elite skill Set uh but the the thing that separates the men from the PGA Tour is what you can do with your approach play and for Min W Lee that is not a strength at this point it’s an area of weakness for him and even in in this round where you know he makes six birdies in a row um he still loses Strokes approaching the green so that’s something that he’ll have to clean up going forward um to to be the star we want him to be because he’s so fun to watch so has so much charisma and is a a you know a great asset to the PGA Tour but in order for him to contend on more leaderboards that area of his game has to improve I’m Gonna Let You Define this any way that you want who is closer to being a star Min wo Lee or Steph Jagger uh probably minw Lee although I think Stephen dieger is a much better player um which is kind of kind of funny um I think when you talk about stars there’s more to it than just the performance on the golf course of course you have to contend you have to be in the mix with a degree of regularity but you also have to Garner a little bit of attention you know Scotty sheffler is a star because of what he does on the golf course but it’s it’s just too hard to ignore if he was playing the way Patrick Klay and Zander shley play very very good performances but not winning everything he plays in well then the the stardom would decrease significantly I mean you couldn’t be a top five player in the world and not be a star and I think minw Lee has more of the things where he could be the 30th ranked player in the world win a couple times and be a be a star the reason I bring up Stephen jger is because he also shot a 66 which is a five under par round same as minwu Lee but the stat profile here is so interesting Greg you know we have been track ing uh Steven Jagger very closely all year long he is the only golfer inside the top 20 uh well hold on let me back up there are only three golfers inside the top 20 who are losing Strokes on approach this week Steph jger is one of them he is the only golfer inside the top 20 and beyond that are losing both on approach and via the putter so he is doing a lot of work off the te he’s doing a lot of work around the greens I don’t know if that is particularly sustainable but I also kind of think that even without some of his best stuff he’s in the mix yes um he’s very good and this round he he did gain Strokes approaching the green today but less than a less than a stroke right you know less than two10 of a stroke but at the same time he hits 16 of 18 greens so you know I’m very curious about his stat profile and perhaps Min W Lee Falls in this category a little bit too where they’re driving it I mean Stephen especially is driving it way longer and that’s what that that has unlocked his these ceiling performances that’s what’s unlocked contention especially on these kind of longer golf courses I wonder if they’re just driving it into places where their their iron play it’s difficult for them to gain Strokes approaching the green it would have to be Electric in order to gain significant Strokes in in that category that’s just a theory but when you see someone hit 16 of 18 greens and they’re kind of middle of the pack in their iron play statistics it um it’s interesting but at the same time I think it makes it more sustainable as well uh going forward if that makes sense it’s it’s not like these are bad approaches it’s just not quite getting it close yeah it’s kind of one of those things like here’s the data here’s the stats you can kind of interpret this however you want I don’t think there’s a right answer I think it’s something to keep an eye on we are going to go to the top of the board we are going to look at the odds for who is going to win the golf tournament tomorrow but first we’re going to take a quick break and hear a word from our partners at CBS Sports Gazo Network we’re bringing you the game The Madness of Messi arrives breaking down the game this is unlike anything else in the world and changing the game get it all for nil that means free wow and all day long 247 and we’re back Greg let’s just jump to the top five in the betting board they’re also all tied for fifth or better Alex norin made noise at the beginning of his rounds he made the turn in three under he added three more by the time he got to 14 and then this round fizzled out a little bit 16 17 and 18 he played at one over didn’t birdie 17 which was uh the shortest it’s been all week did not birdie 18 which is a Hole uh that was the easiest on the course so by him playing the final three holes at one over he basically gave a shot and a half back to the field on those three holes alone yeah and that was disappointing you know um he misses to the left of the green at um at at 16 has a chip across the green that mean all it’s a long chip but it’s all green to work with and I I wonder if he just played the wrong shot there um could have probably played something a little bit lower running along the ground a little more came up the chip came up short checked up a little bit more than he wanted and he made Bogey and then at 18 he missed the green left and two and tried to hit a pretty cool flop shot that just you know he cut the legs right out from underneath it doesn’t get it on the green and has to settle for par and he had a he had a look at 17 maybe a little longer a little more to the right than he would hope but all in all it was a pretty good round of golf from Alex noren it’s been a great tournament his performance coming in has been spectacular it’s just been really solid in all areas of the game uh including the putting which is which is really nice it’s unlikely that he wins but it’s also unlikely that he drops significantly tomorrow so I think we are going to add another really good finish for Alex noren to his stat sheet this week there are two golfers tied at T three that’s 17 under par let’s start with Matt Wallace he is somebody who has been in the mix throughout the course of the week because he opened up with a 63 on Thursday and while he gave one back at 16 today Greg he rallied with birdies on both 17 and 18 he is going to be two shots back he’s been around forever uh he won in punana last year and now we’re trying to get him another Victory here on Sunday yeah um it this is a great little recipe if you look at this scorecard you take advantage of the three par fives you’d love to get six as well but he gets 14 as well so you got four kind of a driveable Par Four and the three par fivs you make birdies on those you’re in business boget 16’s disappointed that was kind of he was just off the green but a three putt from him there and he was very disappointed and then you get a wedge in your hand at 17 and you knock it in there close and roll in the putt I I I think Matt Wallace is um is put in really well even though it felt today like it was pretty cold um like he couldn’t really get anything to fall except for the really easy holes but I think he’s rolling it really nice so I would not be surprised if he made a little run tomorrow it seems like that um is in the tank because he’s given himself looks but Rick you have an interesting thing on him on weaker Fields um you’ve said before he feasts on weaker Fields that’s right yeah he has I don’t remember the exact stat but it was something where if I if I can pick sort through my own brain I was probably looking at fields that are weaker than the average field uh and like basically all of his best results are like punana Puerto Rico you know these like these weaker whether they’re alternate fields or just weaker fields he tends to really show up there which yeah I mean I don’t know I think it is that a mindset thing Greg where you say hey not that he doesn’t think he can win every single week but I think a lot of these guys think they might not be able to if he gets into a field like this he’s licking his chops yeah um you know I look at Matt Wallace and I think he’s so talented um and I kind of expected a better run on the PGA tour but this is a DP World Tour player right and all of a sudden on the DP World Tour he can be a star that’s what gets you to the PGA Tour um but when you get to the PGA Tour fields are stronger maybe you know he looks a little better than he really is and and so all of a sudden you get into DP World Tour type fields and you’re a star again so I I don’t know how to quantify that it it doesn’t make a whole lot lot of sense it just it feels like he underperformed tour from his talent level and what you see him do in these kind of fields you You’ think he has the game to step up in in some of the big boy events as well yeah it is interesting something that will keep an eye on as uh as we continue this this season now he is in at 17 under Ben Kohl’s is also in at 17 under he has gone 65 66 and 65 this week Greg he was number one in the cor fairy tour standings last year so he gets promoted that also gets him into the US Open I believe I did not know that number one on the F on the corn Ferry regular season and final points or whatever gets into the US Open I didn’t know that either yeah that’s a thing so Ben CO’s is in 2024 has not been the year for Ben Kohls uh at all and now he’s trying to break through here yeah and one one week like this can well it can keep you on the PGA tour instead of going back to the de uh back to the corn fairy tour which is where he’s headed if he doesn’t put together a great performance uh like he did today uh uh tomorrow but he’s got to put another one one of those up tomorrow but this is another one of those you look he he he plays the four par fives in uh in four under he gets number six oh he didn’t get number six well he hit a couple really good wedges at three and 13 hit a couple in there close which was a huge asset to add to the bonus of playing the par FES four under which is just awesome but he was great with his iron play in this round he was second in the field in Strokes gain approach hit a number of shots inside of six seven feet and even missed some opportunities 8 10 Footers so this was a high quality round and you know the guys near the top of the leaderboard he kind kind of looked the best you know I mean Jake knap was smooth Matt Wallace looked frustrated at times Taylor pendrith will get to him in a little bit um but but Ben Kohl’s looked rock solid today and it seems like couple of couple more of those putts balls and he had 62 in in this round pretty easily the guy sitting in Solo second was the guy who put himself on a very exclusive list that’s Jake nap he he along with Tiger Woods and Scotty chefler were the only two golfers that open up 6464 at uh the Byron Nelson in its history Now Greg this wasn’t a bad round it was a 67 it was a fine round he beat the field average by a stroke and a half and he spread his birdies out one five4 18 all pars otherwise what did you see from Jake knap today um I saw a very solid performance a couple of loose t- shots the number nine for instance the par five the only par five he didn’t get today uh he had he had to basically chip out on his second shot uh even 18 he had to chip out so there were some loose t- shots which is quite frankly that’s probably why Jake knap hasn’t performed at the level we saw in Mexico or at the farmers or the cognizant classic been a little inaccuracy off the te I do think this course allows um allows for a little bit of that but sometimes it got him today but he was really solid with his iron play he gave himself a ton of good opportunities and it just felt like the putter which has been very very good this week was cold it just felt like he couldn’t get anything to drop couldn’t Garner any momentum uh but he made some really nice par saves I mean even on like nine he gives himself a good opportunity for birdie after a bad t- shot 12 he has to layup which is a part four and he gets that up and down for par which was huge and then he gets up and down for birdie at 18 uh which puts him in I think they’re going in twos tomorrow um if that’s the case it puts him in the final group so it was a really I thought a rolled putter the man they will all be chasing the man who shot the rounds of the day an eight under 63 the man who made not one but two Eagles and oh by the way they were on consecutive holes is Taylor pendrith Taylor pendrith opened with a birdie on number two an eagle chip in on five I would call The Eagle on six more of a hole out that was from 41 yards he birdies nine and all of a sudden he makes the turn in 30 two more birdies on his second nine and Greg now Taylor pendrith who has battled a shoulder injury this year a rib injury in the past just the inability to stay heal uh can really put a stamp on his career not only any year but a year that will end with a president’s C in his home country yeah it’s kind of disappointing because this is a player when he is healthy Rick um on our Monday show our DFS show we are all over this guy because he’s so talented uh and he absolutely smashes it off the tea he stripes so that was really fun to watch today lost a couple to the right but all in all it was show off the tea and I I think Ricky’s still dealing with this shoulder issue I think he is too it’s not fixed yet um but here he is putting himself in position look the the bonuses are five and six those ho outs are huge bonuses and they really spurred this round on other than that it was pretty simple it was a a nice wedge into number two uh easy birdie at nine and then uh hit it close at 12 and rolled in a beautiful putt at at 13 which really they had a great worm cam of this and you could see how quickly that ball started rolling it’s something Taylor pendra has been doing um and that’s kind of scary heading into tomorrow because he he put the ball on the green and you leave yourself on this golf course a lot of putts in that 15 to 25 foot range and you have to you have to make a couple of those to spur on these low rounds and and I think what he has going on with his putting stroke certainly allows for that you know what would help with a uh shoulder injury no $1.7 million oh yeah I guess there’s a lot you could do maybe get a cold plunge for the house that would take a little pain away for at least a little bit I think yeah I think so too treatment it that would be it would be huge for him you know what else that would help with Rick what’s that that event in Canada at the end of the year tell you what man help for that at this pace with the way the Canadians are playing that’s gonna be an all Canadian team it kind of feels like it should be well I wonder who’s like the 12th best Canadian in the world how deep would we have to go to to fill that roster well where would where would like Adam Fenson be yeah he’d be like seven right so we’ve got I Cory Connors Taylor pendrith Adam hadwin Nick Taylor Adam Hughes uh McKenzie Hughes we’re at six already would probably be like 12 who would be 12 Michael gig oh okay yeah you’re probably in that range you got Roger Sloan Sloan is eight okay that’s we’ve got eight of them now um oh man does the owgr have have a by country thing yes they do uh I can walk you through this why not do it on air I I got it except it’s a very old like the website they updated the website okay here we go all right so we named one two three four five we have the top six slona is pretty far down there and gig is even farther so we missed uh Ben Silverman is 131st in the world okay Aaron cochell is 218 miles kraton Stuart McDonald Wilson baitman Roger Sloan I I had none of those yeah so that’s that would that would be your that would be your President’s Cup team of all Canadians okay so we’re probably not gonna get all Canadians I would say not no right you’re still gonna get your Tom Kim and Sun JM has to be on the team Jason day Jason day and woo Adam Scott yeah you got some Aussies um it’ll be tough for some of those Canadians to make the team but but I think they have a pretty healthy group of five six but a pendrith wi would really help with that they’re doing a good job they’re doing a good job very let’s see what Vegas thinks about the final round at the Byron Nelson I think it’s close at the top it is pendrith is the favorite one shot lead plus 190 Jake knap a shot back plus 240 Wallace plus 650 Ben Kohl’s plus 900 Alex noren is 14 to1 Ben on is 28 to1 Kelly craft is 50 to one that’s everybody in the top five plus Ben on here’s the the hard thing is if you go down to like Alex noren right who Rick I know he was on your betting card as a winner yeah this is it’s kind of a pickle for me now right he’s he’s like I think he’s probably too far back but I’m not really ready to abandon him so what I I feel the same way so what do you think is the winning score I need if norin can win it needs to be 23 under I think right okay so norin could go shoot eight under yeah it would be a pretty wild round but it’s very possible I mean yeah exactly shot it’s what pendrith did today he’d have to be three better than than what he did I mean yeah yeah it it would have to be pretty or you’d have to get significant help from pendrith and nap which so let’s say pendrith and nap struggle I still think 23 is in the cards I mean for Wallace or Kohl’s to go shoot six under you know or or you add nap in there for him to shoot five under for pendrith to shoot four under like one of those guys is going to do that I would think right one of those four right so I think 23 is the number I think noren can get there I don’t think anybody Beyond Alex noren can get there so you’re basically looking at pendrith knap Wallace Kohl’s noren as the guys with a real chance to win and if it gets to like 24 or 25 it’s probably just pendra or now and kind of the camp that I sit in is this is Jake gap’s second win tomorrow I I think I agree with that I mean he is it was a pretty uh I think Josh said it in the chat the right word for it is it was a professional round you know it it it clearly wasn’t his best stuff but he beat the field average he kept his position he made a couple of birdies late to stay within Arms Reach and get into the final group I think he is probably uh like I think kind of the AR discussion we’re having earlier I think Alex noren is like the best player at the top but I think Jake Napp is probably the most talented I mean pendrith has a ton of talent too but I I think that there’s a really pendri chipping in for Eagle twice like I mean it’s you know it’s it feels like feels like nap’s gonna win this hard to replicate I mean nap leads the field in approach for the week um you feel like he can kind of get away with some of his air Andy off The te which he struggles with I mean you I’ve heard some people in the industry say the short game is a little bit of a weakness but he hit some like the the shot he hit at 14 was unbelievable I gonna say the only shots I saw him the only short game shots I saw him hit today were all great he is also I got to look I got to look this up because I I think his Bunker play is unbelievable it may have changed since you know he was the Talk of the Town earlier in the year but let me pull up this I’m gonna jump over to his profile too let’s see here uh s what do you what you look at sand saves I got sand saves here yeah what do you got for sand saves 37th in sand saves 60% six okay so this fell off there was a time during this year yeah he’s 35 of 35 of 59 oh here you go proximity to Hole from the sand he’s first he averages 6 feet 2 inches so he he started missing some pots there was a time when he was like 17 of 19 in sand saves it’s just joke that was probably unsustainable yeah yeah still pretty his putter fell off a little bit for a few weeks so that’s understandable but the point being Rick I I really think he has a fairly complete game and the one weakness that I would say he has is he can get a little loose with some t- shots um but I don’t think that’s a big penalty here we’ll see uh and we’ll be back to discuss it let me put let me put a bow on two things we talked about earlier so I could not find the exact uh thing that I wrote up but I did find a tweet about Matt Wallace that I sent out so I sent this out to Mexico open basically for the Mexico open field Wallace was first entering the week in Strokes gained per round against weak Fields below average fields and he had five career worldwide wins against those fields so that that was that nugget and the other one is uh they changed this uh a couple like two years ago but now I did confirm the US it’s the USGA that gives uh the exemption to the guy who wins the corn fairy points both the the combines both regular season and playoffs winner winner of it all pretty cool U one other thing it is not two sus tomorrow it is threes sus I feel like we’re doing PTI Corrections uh it is it is threesoms pendrith nap and Ben Kohl’s in the final grouping split T’s uh 11: am Eastern to 100 PM Eastern there’s some weather coming in tonight I wonder if there’s more weather Sunday night as well interesting interesting interesting okay cool well we will be back Sunday night hopefully I imagine with the conclusion of the Byron Nelson for now big thanks to producer Josh does all the hard work behind the scenes that right there it’s Greg du charm you can find him on Twitter at the real gfd and you can find me at Rick run good this has been the first cut we’ll catch you next time [Music] n [Music]