The PGA Tour heads to South Korea this week for the inaugural CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges. An elite, restricted field including Justin Thomas, Jason Day and Adam Scott will tee it up.
After last week’s CIMB Classic, the PGA Tour stays in Asia this week as South Korea welcomes its first regular PGA Tour event – the CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges. USPGA champion Justin Thomas, Jason Day and eight others from the top-30 on the Official World Golf Ranking make a start.
There’s a limited field of just 78 for this event with Justin Thomas, Jason Day, Adam Scott, Daniel Berger and Paul Casey on the start sheet. The home nation will be well represented with The Players champion Si Woo Kim teeing it up, together with K.J Choi, Sangmoon Bae, Ben An, Jeunghun Wang and 11 other South Korean golfers.
Jason Day swing sequence:
There’s no cut and a fairly enormous prize fund to play for in the CJ Cup – It’s $9.25 million with the winner set to pocket $1.6 million.
The course at Nine Bridges is one of the finest in Asia and has previously played host to LPGA Tour events. Designed by Ronald Fream and David Dale it’s set across rolling pineland on the lower slopes of dormant volcano Mount Halla.
The weather looks like delivering some cool and breezy conditions. The wind is expected to gust to 20mph throughout the tournament which could prove testing for those with a higher ball flight.
Venue: Nine Bridges, Jeju Island, South Korea
Date: Oct 19-22
Course stats: par 72, 7,196 yards
Purse: $9,250,000
Defending champion: Inaugural event
TV Coverage:
Thursday 19 – Sky Sports Golf from 3am
Friday 20 – Sky Sports Golf from 3am
Saturday 21 – Sky Sports Golf from 3am
Sunday 22 – Sky Sports Golf from 3am
Player Watch:
Paul Casey – The Englishman has been on extremely consistent form on the PGA Tour with seven top-10s in the last five months. He was tied seventh in last week’s CIMB Classic, despite a 77 in the first round.
Tony Finau – It looks like this could be a big season for big-hitting Finau. He finished the FedEx Cup playoffs strongly and was then runner-up at Silverado.
Rafa Cabrera-Bello – The talented Spaniard finished in the top-10 in the CIMB Classic and will look to push on from that result.
Key hole: 18th. It’s a fabulous par-5 offering different options for the players. If the choice is to be bold from the tee then a drive down the left side over two bunkers will open up a landing area from which the island green would be reachable in two shots. Shorter hitters will need to play to the right from the tee and then lay-up into a landing zone from which to approach the surface with the third shot. It’s a great risk/reward finishing hole.
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