With The CJ CUP Byron Nelson not a signature event on the PGA Tour, the tournament organisers would have been delighted to have seen Scottie Scheffler triumph – even if they would have preferred the world number one to leave the door open for some sort of drama at TPC Craig Ranch.
Scottie Scheffler produced a masterclass to win The CJ CUP Byron Nelson for the first time in his career. The 28-year-old finished the tournament at 31 under par to win by eight.
The very top of the leaderboard was not exactly eventful to follow, with Scheffler leading from start to finish. However, there were some other notable talking points from the week.
Jordan Spieth made a bit of a statement ahead of the PGA Championship with his display. Meanwhile, there was some controversy towards the end of the second round on Saturday.
PGA Tour decision questioned after The CJ CUP Byron Nelson
Davis Riley called a penalty on himself after admitting that he had accidentally used the slope setting on his rangefinder. The feature provides a yardage which takes the change in elevation into account. Riley was given a two-shot penalty which meant that he only made the cut on the number after holing a putt for eagle on his last hole of the round.
Distance measuring devices have been available for players and caddies to use in the last three events. And Riley is rightly being lauded by many for calling the penalty on himself with there being no real way of proving whether any player has used the slope setting at any stage.
Rangefinders being temporarily permitted was part of the PGA Tour‘s attempts to speed up play. But it seems that many have their doubts regarding whether the positives outweigh the negatives at this stage.
Speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast, Rex Hoggard suggested that Riley can consider himself extremely unlucky to receive a two-shot penalty, while he also questioned the impact allowing rangefinders has had.
“I think it’s ridiculous for twofold reasons: one, you’re going to go to the rules of golf issue. Two strokes seems like that is a harsh penalty for what by any stretch of the imagination a very innocent incident. So that’s one of the things I’m going to point out. The other one is players received two rangefinders in their lockers in Hilton Head without the slope function on them. The PGA Tour wanted to provide them with rangefinders to avoid this exact case scenario. I remember talking with numerous players and caddies about, ‘yes, we’re going to use this version just to be safe’. One of the caddies had actually put tape on the switch on the side of the rangefinder to keep it from going over,” he said.
“I think everyone knew that this was going to happen, and it’s unfortunate, and you’re right, two strokes seems way too severe, and if we’re going to go to the bottom line, it’s not speeding up play. This is going to be one of those parts of the game that it might help one shot a round for one player over the course of a week. It might help you if you’re way off line, if you’re over in another fairway and instead of trying to walk it off and figure out the yardage, you just shoot it and that’s going to be helpful. It’s not really going to be the magic bullet that speeds up play, so I’m not sure why we’re doing this.”
PGA Tour still seeking its answer to pace of play issues
If yardage books include adjusted distances anyway, then Riley is desperately unlucky to be penalised in this manner. And it may be something which needs to be looked at moving forward.
If the pace of play is not significantly improving, then it makes little sense to persist with allowing rangefinders – particularly if most caddies would rather do their own yardages.
Had everything else played out exactly the same, Riley would have finished tied for 33rd this past week rather than tied for 45th. For someone who currently finds themselves 89th in the FedEx Cup standings, that sort of jump could have a massive difference come the end of the year.
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