The Course Report
The Summit Club
About Summit Club
Still in Vegas, but this time, there is no cutline to sweat as all golfers will be playing four rounds. The CJ Cup is typically held in Korea at Jeju Island, but Covid-19 has redirected the CJ Cup back to the U.S. for the second consecutive year.
The Tom Fazio design has all the elements that we see at courses like Quail Hollow, Congaree, Conway Farms and Shadow Creek. There was little time to prepare for the event, and I am going to anticipate that the course is not going to play extremely difficult.
With the course never being on the Tour rotation, most will speculate as to how the course will play out. It is key this week to see what players are saying to get an edge on any potential attributes that the masses might be missing. Most information you can find about Summit is going to transcribed at ASAP Sports.
A narrative that I am going to continue to exploit is the Nevada residents, west coast players, college that players attended and potentially South African players. The biggest difference between last week at the Shriners versus this week’s CJ is Cup is that the field is noticeably stronger at this event.
The course does stretch to over 7400 yards, but don’t forget that the thin Vegas air allows this course to play shorter than the yardage book might present. The key aspect is being able to attack pins from the fairway, in what we can assume is going to be another putting fest on these bentgrass putting surfaces.
The lowest score I’ve seen on record here at Summit is a 61 by member Maverick McNealy. If the course is going to play this simple for the entire tournament anticipate a hot putter to get the job done.
For those that like to watch golfers tear up a course this is probably right up your alley. Keep an eye on what the pros are saying and take advantage of the fact that you’re getting no matter who you roster that 4 rounds will be in play.
Architect: Tom Fazio
Greens: Bentgrass
Green Size: 7,400 sq. feet (Large)
Stimpmeter: 11.5 to 12 – Avgerage
Length: 7,431 – Par 72
Water Hazards: 7 come into play
Bunkers: 62
Weather Forecast
Past Winners
Laird defeated Matthew Wolff and Austin Cook on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff when he made a birdie from 15 feet to locku p his first PGA Tour title since 2013.
Kevin Na nearly fell apart as his three-shot lead on the back nine disapeared. A triple bogey on the 10th hole, and a bogey on the par-5 16th almost led to one of the most histroic losses on PGA Tour.
Yet, a par putt on 17 and a luck that Cantlay hit bogey on the same hole led to a playoff win for Na.
Patrick Cantlay was close to becoming the frist player to win back-to-back tournaments in Vegas in the last 20 years, but DeChambeau had other plans.
An eagle putt from just inside 60 feet on the 16th hole carried him toa 5-under 66 and a one-shot victory over Cantlay. This was Dechambeau’s 5th win on the PGA Tour.
Cantlay won the Shriners in a playoff for his first victory on Tour.
Most of Cantlay’s career had been derailed by a back injury at this point, so the fact that he finally competed on Tour was a victory in itself.
It took a 3-man playoff, but Johnson beat Louis Ossthuizen and Marc Leishman by shooting a 15, 1 under in a four hole playoff.
Johnson was a surprise win as just the week before his prep came in Illinois at the John Deere Classic. This was Johnson’s second major win, and his first Claret Jug.
Entering with a six-stroke lead over the field, McIIroy went from dominant to just hanging on. Still, no golfer ever got withing two strokes the entire day, and he held his composure despite struggles off the tee and on the greens.
In winning, McIIroy became the seventh wire-to-wire winner in Open Championship history.
After winning the Scottish Open the week prior, Mickelson birdied four of the last six holes and became the Open Champion.
To this point, Phil had come close to winning, but had often doubted his abilites on links style courses.
Els began Sunday 6 shots back, but still clinched the vicotry after Adam Scott imploded.
Els’ 68 was a comeback of epic proportions when you consider the fact that Scott was still winning by 4 strokes on the 15th tee.