Why so low? 'Tougher' Byron Nelson course still yielding crazy low scores
Lanny Wadkins redesigned TPC Craig Ranch to make the Byron Nelson tougher, but low scores persist due to weather and course setup.
McKINNEY, Texas — When TPC Craig Ranch turned to Lanny Wadkins ahead of this year’s CJ Cup Byron Nelson, the mission was clear: add some teeth to a course that, in just a few years, had been rendered defenseless by the world’s best players. Since the PGA Tour event moved to this Dallas suburb in 2021, the numbers have told the story. Birdies came in bunches.
Winning scores plummeted. What was intended as a modern championship test was, instead, a NASCAR-style sprint with players racing deep into red figures. In each of the five editions played at TPC Craig Ranch, the champion has reached at least 23 under.
It’s a stark contrast to the tournament’s earlier history, when across 10 different venues prior to 2018, no winner had ever touched 20 under. Wadkins, brought in to toughen the layout, believed he could restore a measure of balance. And he wasn’t shy about it.
The Hall of Famer, clearly proud of the adjustments, predicted the winning total would look nothing like the jaw-dropping 31-under-par Scottie Scheffler posted a year ago in an eight-shot runaway. That performance, while remarkable, only underscored how vulnerable the previous setup had become. Byron Nelson winning scores, TPC Craig Ranch era Year Winner Score 2025 Scottie Scheffler -31 2024 Taylor Pendrith -23 2023 Jason Day -23 2022 K.
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