CNN
—
Scottie Scheffler tied a PGA Tour record to claim his first victory of 2025 with a blistering win at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas, on Sunday.
The world No. 1 equaled the PGA Tour’s 72-hole scoring record of 253, matching the mark set by Justin Thomas at the 2017 Sony Open and Ludvig Åberg at the 2023 RSM Classic. He also broke the CJ Cup 72-hole record of 259 set by Steven Bowditch in 2015.
Scheffler closed out his victory with a final-round 63 to finished at 31-under for the tournament, eight shots clear of second-placed Erik van Rooyen.
The American called the dominant victory “very special,” explaining afterwards that he grew up coming to watch the tournament and even made his PGA Tour debut at the CJ Cup.
“This is a golf course where you can kind of make a run, and I knew that I couldn’t just coast to the finish line today,” the 28-year-old told reporters afterwards. “I knew I had to put together a good round.
“Let’s say I played super safe today and shot even par, Erik would have chased me down there. I knew I had to get out and make some birdies. Did a good job on the front nine and was able to play some consistent golf here. I made the mistake on 3, but responded really well with a bunch of birdies after that. All together, a good week.”
Scheffler entered Sunday’s final round with an eight-shot lead and nobody came within six shots of him over the final 18 holes as he put in an inspired display to remain atop the leaderboard.
The only downside on a successful outing in Texas was missing an opportunity to break the record outright after he carded a bogey on the par-three 17th and a par on the final hole to mean he had to settle for a share of the historic mark.
Thomas, who first set the record, humorously texted CBS analyst Colt Knost when Scheffler was on the 17th: “Tell Scottie to just make bogey-par and tie my 72-hole record, please … 31-under is just fine. Take pride in that.”
The victory is Scheffler’s 14th on the PGA Tour but first of the year. In the past three years combined, he had already won 10 times before May, including two Masters victories.
Having missed last year’s CJ Cup for the birth of his first child Bennett, Scheffler held his son as he celebrated the victory and fought back tears as he addressed the crowd.
When asked afterwards why emotions caught up to him, Scheffler explained that this tournament is ingrained in him as a golfer – TPC Craig Ranch is close enough to his house that Scheffler slept in his own bed during the duration of the tournament.
“When I think about this tournament, I think about a lot of different stuff. I grew up coming to watch it,” he said. “This was my first start on the PGA Tour when I was in high school. The girl I was dating at the time is now my wife. We have one son. My sister was caddying for me at the time. She was here today. She has two kids.
“My family was all able to be here, and it was just really, really special memories, and I think at times it all comes crashing down to me at once. We have a lot of great memories as kids coming to watch this tournament. I just dreamed to be able to play in it, and it’s more of a dream to be able to win it.
“I never really got this far to be honest with you. I always just dreamed of playing golf on the PGA Tour. I would come out on the driving range and watch these guys practice, hitting their brand-new range balls. That’s all I wanted to do was come out here and play a golf course that was in great shape and compete on the best golf courses in the world against the best players.
“It really is a lifetime of hard work and sacrifice from a lot of the people that I have around me, and my family is obviously the starter for that.”