{"id":596838,"date":"2026-05-21T21:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T21:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/596838\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T21:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T21:12:10","slug":"the-cj-cup-byron-nelson-brooks-koepka-makes-strong-start-with-scottie-scheffler-also-in-early-contention-golf-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/596838\/","title":{"rendered":"The CJ Cup Byron Nelson: Brooks Koepka makes strong start with Scottie Scheffler also in early contention | Golf News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brooks Koepka fired a storming eight-under 63 to take the clubhouse lead in the first round of the The CJ Cup Byron Nelson in Texas.<\/p>\n

Four days on from the conclusion of the PGA Championship, won by Englishman Aaron Rai, regular tour action in the US resumed at TPC Craig Ranch with world No 1 and defending tournament champion Scottie Scheffler headlining the field.<\/p>\n

But it was former No 1 and five-time major winner Koepka, playing in a group alongside Scheffler, who made the most eye-catching start in McKinney on his 11th appearance back on the PGA Tour thanks to a bogey-free opening round featuring six birdies and one eagle.<\/p>\n

Starting from the 10th hole, Koepka birdied the par-four 11th before finding an eagle at the next hole, the par-five 12th. After a further birdie at the 14th helped him go out in a four-under 31, the American birdied the second, fourth, fifth and sixth on his way in for a round of 63.<\/p>\n

Koepka has returned to the PGA Tour this year after four seasons on LIV Golf and has so far recorded a best finish of tied-ninth at the Cognizant Classic in February. He finished tied 55th last week at Aronimink.<\/p>\n

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As it stands with Thursday’s play continuing, Koepka leads by one shot from a group of five players – Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo, South Korea’s Si Woo Kim, Germany’s Stephan Jaeger and American duo Keith Mitchell and Michael Thorbjornsen – tied on seven under.<\/p>\n

Texan resident Scheffler, who won last year’s tournament on 31 under par to equal the record or the fewest amount of strokes in a PGA Tour event, opened his title defence with a five-under 66.<\/p>\n

In the group with Koepka and Kim, starting at the 10th, Scheffler birdied the 12th and 13th before finishing his day by going three under through his final five holes, including a round-ending birdie.<\/p>\n

More to follow…<\/p>\n

Watch the The CJ Cup Byron Nelson live until Sunday on Sky Sports Golf, where Scottie Scheffler is the defending champion. Get Sky Sports<\/a> or stream with no contract<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Golf<\/p>\n

Get the best prices and book a round at one of 1,700 courses across the UK & Ireland<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brooks Koepka fired a storming eight-under 63 to take the clubhouse lead in the first round of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-596838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}