Rory McIlroy Wins 2021 CJ Cup

Rory McIlroy wins the 2021 CJ Cup; his 20th PGA Tour win (image: Getty Images)

 

 

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - Things were heating up this weekend in the desert at The Summit Club, particularly for one Irishman.

Rory McIlroy has won the 2021 CJ Cup with a final score of 25-under par and a one shot lead over Collin Morikawa. This is McIlroy's 20th win on the PGA Tour and second this year after the Wells Fargo Championship in May. 

 

The Northern Ireland native is in his 14th year on tour; his win this week ensures he will receive lifetime membership on the PGA Tour, which will begin at the end of his 15th season.

A WEEKEND OF CHANGING STORYLINES

Heading into the weekend of the 2021 CJ Cup, the storylines were completely different.

As we wrote about in our Weekend Update article, Keith Mitchell held a dominant lead over the rest of the field and showed no signs of letting up. But this all changed on Saturday, when Mitchell carded a 1-over 73, on a day that saw scores as low as 62, shot by none other than McIlroy, and a 63 shot by Rickie Fowler.

McIlroy and Folwer were the main headlines heading into the final round, each with their own devoted fanbases and story; fan favorites of the PGA Tour and some of the nicest players on it.

 

Fowler, who entered the tournament on one of five available sponsor's exemptions, was looking for a resurgence in his career and a return to the elite level of golf he was known for. McIlroy, who was performing well this year, was struggling with inconsistencies in his game as of late. 

 

It was McIlroy who would make the most out of their final round however. He shot a 66 that included four birdies on the front nine and a birdie and eagle of the back nine. His eagle came on the par 5 14th hole, where he sank an incredible 34-foot putt after driving the green.

Fowler, on the other hand, was in the mix until a double bogey on the 6th hole. Another bogey on the 10th hole negated the three prior birdies he carded. Folwer would finish his round with a score of 71. Fowler's efforts did not go unrewarded. His T3 finish launched him from 128th to 82nd in the World Golf Rankings and is further confirmation that his game is in a good place. It will be exciting to watch Fowler this year and his ensuing comeback.

In the group ahead of McIlroy and Fowler, Morikawa was on fire, carding a 29 on his front nine. An eagle on the par 5 18th hole, concluded his 10-under round of 62, the low round of the day, and put the pressure on McIlroy and Fowler.

Keith Mitchell was not completely out of the mix. He made a back nine resurgence after four birdies to rally back to a T3 finish.

HOW DID OUR PICKS FINISH?

 

1) Dustin Johnson: T45 at 14-under

2) Marc Leishman: T38 at 15-under

3) Justin Thomas: T18 at 18-under

Not bad finishes at all. The top of the leaderboard was crammed coming down the stretch, with 13 players at or lower than 20-under.

***

That concludes our coverage of the 2021 CJ Cup hosted by The Summit Club. Next week, we stay with the PGA Tour as it travels to Narashino, Japan for the 2021 Zozo Championship. This is another invitational event and again will boast an elite field. 

 

 

Stay tuned for our picks later this week,

-Nick

Toronto Golf Reviews

Keith Mitchell Leads 2021 CJ Cup Heading Into Weekend

Keith Mitchell holds an impressive five shot lead at 18-under at the 2021 CJ CUP
 

 

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - The weekday rounds of the 2021 CJ Cup hosted by The Summit Club have concluded. American Keith Mitchell leads the tournament with an impressive score of 18-under and a five shot lead over Seonghyeon Kim, Jordan Spieth, Harry Higgs and Adam Scott.

Since this is an invitational event with a smaller field, there is no cut this week.

 

MITCHEL ON FIRE AT THE SUMMIT CLUB

Keith Mitchell is having himself a week so far in Las Vegas.

 

He started the tournament on Thursday by shooting 62 in a round that included ten birdies and a five-hole birdie streak on the front nine. 

 

A 64 on Friday saw Mitchell take the lead early into his round and soon afterwards a runaway was looking imminent.

All parts of Mitchell's game were firing on all cylinders, from making long putts, to excellent wedge shots when he found trouble, to impressive approach shots; he was locked in.

 

Mitchell even received praise from Rory McIlroy, who has been impressed with his quality of golf for quite some time now. 

 

 

HOW ARE OUR PICKS DOING?

1) Dustin Johnson: T55 at 4-under

2) Marc Leishman: T49 at 5-under

3) Justin Thomas: T28 at 8-under

Not too great, considering the field size. Johnson nearly carded an albatross during his second round on the par 5 3rd hole, which measures a staggering 606 yards. Johnson nearly holed out from the fairway from 283 yards, his ball landing on the green, then hitting the flagstick before coming to rest, inches away from the hole. 

 

The shot of the day however belongs to Abraham Ancer, who actually holed out for albatross on the par 5 14th hole, from a distance on 250 yards.

***

It may be looking like a runaway for Keith Mitchell. Will someone be able to catch him this weekend? Will Mitchell be able to hold on? 

Stay tuned for our summary article to see who has won,

-Nick

Toronto Golf Reviews

2021 CJ Cup Preview and Picks

 

Fresh off his 2021 Ryder Cup performance, Dustin Johnson is our top pick to win the 2021 CJ Cup

 

 

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - The PGA Tour continues its Las Vegas Swing this week, with the 2021 CJ Cup hosted by The Summit Club.

The field is filled with many of the PGA Tour's elite players and promises to be a spectacle for golf fans.

 

 

TOURNAMENT HISTORY

The CJ Cup is a relatively new event on Tour. It was conceived to be the first PGA Tour event played in South Korea, starting in 2017 at The Club at Nine Bridges on Jeju Island. Nine Bridges has hosted the event since 2019.

 

In 2020, Covid-19 travel restrictions forced the event to be played on US soil at Shadow Creak in Las Vegas. The event stayed in the US this year, but is expected to return to South Korea once travel restrictions are lifted.

 

The event is invitation only and because of this boasts an elite field of 78 players. The Top 60 in last year's FedEx Cup Rankings receive an invite, as well as the top 3 players from the Korean Tour's order of merit and the top player from the Asian Tour's order of merit. In addition, previous winners of the KPGA Championship and Genesis Championship on the Korean Tour are invited, as well as the top 3 Korean players in the Official World Golf Rankings.

 

Eight spots are also reserved for sponsor's exemptions, five of which are restricted to PGA Tour members, one to a Korean amateur and three unrestricted. 

To quantify just how elite the field is compared to a regular PGA Tour event, last year the CJ Cup had a Strength of Field rating of 610. That ranks it just under a typical WGC event and on par with The Memorial. 

OUR PICKS THIS WEEK

 

1) Dustin Johnson

2) Marc Leishman

3) Justin Thomas

This is Johnson's first event of the season and first since his dominant Ryder Cup performance. He'll be looking to capitalize on that this week. Leishman is a previous winner of this event and is having a great season so far, with a T3 finish at the Shriners Children's Open and a T4 finish at the Fortinet Championship. Thomas has won this event twice, in 2017 and 2019, can he go for a third this year?

***

Since the event is in Las Vegas, play kicks off Thursday around mid-morning. Be sure to check out our Weekend Update to see who is leading heading into the weekend.

-Nick

Toronto Golf Reviews

Zach Johnson Wins the 2015 Open Championship

After delays on top of delays and a four hole playoff in what has been the longest Open Championship in history, we finally have a winner of the 144th Open Championship at the Old Course at St. Andrews. That's right, Zach Johnson defeated Louis Oosthuizen and Marc Leishman in a four hole playoff to win the second major of his career, his first being the 2007 Masters. This is also the Iowa native's 12th PGA Tour victory and first win since last year's Hyundai Tournament of Champions.

Things got a bit hectic towards the end of today's final round. Zach Johnson and Marc Leishman set the playoff bar high, both shooting 66 today to get to 15-under. Johnson birdied the 18th hole to set that score and had a feeling it would be just enough if a playoff was to happen. He was right as shortly after Marc Leishman posted the same score. Johnson played an excellent round today that consisted of eight birdies and two bogeys. He definitely deserved this win.

Chasing them (a few groups back) were Jordan Spieth, who was looking for his third straight major win, Jason Day, who was looking for his first major win, and 2010 Open Champion Louis Oosthuizen, who was looking for a repeat win at the Old Course. Spieth needed a birdie on the par 4 18th to get into the playoff, but hit his second shot short and off the green. He missed the putt and the playoff chance to make history. Day hit his second shot to the middle of the green and had a long putt to make the playoff. His putt was just a couple of feet short and he too failed to get into the playoff. Day and Spieth were in the second to last group, ahead of Oosthuizen. So it all came down to Louis, who was in the same scenario as Spieth, except he hit an excellent second shot wedge to a couple of feet. He made the birdie putt and off to the playoff he went.

The playoff was a four hole aggregate, where Louis, Marc, and Zach played the 1st, 2nd, 17th and 18th. Whoever had the best combined score after the four holes won. Oosthuizen and Johnson birdied the first while Leishman bogeyed. Johnson took the lead after another birdie on the second while Oosthuizen and Leishman parred. But on the third hole, Johnson's chances of winning became slim, after hitting his second shot on the 17th way left of the green, just behind a deep greenside bunker. Oosthuizen and Leishman both were short of the green and Johnson bogeyed, as did Leishman. Oosthuizen putted for birdie but came up short, and unfortunately missed his par putt. On the final 18th hole, Oosthuizen needed a birdie to force a sudden death playoff, but missed his putt by inches. Johnson won the playoff and the Open Championship by a single shot.


As I mentioned before, this was the longest Open Championship in it's entire history, taking 5 days to complete. Regulation play ended at about 7pm local time and the playoff finished about an hour and a half later. Of course this felt even longer due to the weather delays. Today's round did have a bit of rain as predicted and it fell pretty hard on a few holes, while others remained dry. We still saw a few low scores but the scoring average was probably around 69 or 70.

The low amateur of the tournament was not Paul Dunne, who led the tournament as of yesterday. Instead, American Jordan Niebrugge (T6) was. Despite great play all weak, Dunne unfortunately shot a 78 today and finished the tournament T30.

Finally, here's how our picks finished up:

1) Dustin Johnson: T49 at 4-under
2) Rickie Fowler: T30 at 6-under

Dustin shot another 75 today and quickly fell out of contention yet again in a major. Fowler shot a 73 today and finished okay.

And just like that, this season's third major has come and gone. This concludes our coverage in Europe for now as this week we'll be covering our national open, the Canadian Open. Stay tuned for our picks on Wednesday.


-Nick
Toronto Golf Reviews

Zach Johnson: The 2015 Open Champion

2014 Quicken Loans National Predictions - Weekend Update

The weekend rounds of the 2014 Quicken Loans National at Congressional will begin shortly. As of now, there is a four way tie for the lead, with Australians Marc Leishman and Oliver Goss, and Americans Ricky Barnes and Patrick Reed, all who are at 6-under par (-6).

The cut, this week, has been set at 3-over (+3)

The player of note this week, Tiger Woods, was cut, as a result of shooting 74, 75 in his first two rounds.

As for our picks, here is how they are doing:

1) Justin Rose: T11 at 3-under (-3)
2) Jordan Spieth: T40 at 1-over (+1)
3) Keegan Bradley: CUT

Also, Canadian Mike Weir just missed the cut,having shot a combined score of +4.

Stay tuned Sunday evening for the results of the 2014 Quicken Loans National,

-Nick
Toronto Golf Reviews