THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK Recap: Kokrak Cashes In

It says it right on the front of Jason Kokrak's hat: Bet MGM.

For one week, at least, it would have been more apt to display, "Bet Kokrak."

Kokrak, who is an "MGM brand ambassador" and therefore has played the MGM-owned Shadow Creek golf course many times, spun that course knowledge into his first career PGA Tour win in 233 career starts at THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK in Las Vegas. 

Shadow Creek was a one-time replacement host, as the CJ CUP was relocated from South Korea to Las Vegas. The closest it had ever come to the PGA Tour was The Match between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson two years ago. But there are a bunch of pro golfers affiliated with MGM, and they get to play the public-but-ultra-exclusive course as they see fit.

Golf Channel's Rich Lerner tweeted that Kokrak has played Shadow Creek "more than 20 times," and Kokrak himself said on Golf Channel after the win that, "I've played this golf course enough. I should know it."

Indeed.

Kokrak, one of the great ball strikers on Tour, ranked ninth in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee last season. The thing is, he can't putt. At least usually. He ranked outside the top 100 in SG: Putting the last six seasons, and last season he was outside the top 150. At Shadow Creek he ranked first, gaining more than 10 strokes on the field. For reference, he was a mere T32 in SG: OTT.

Chalk up one for -- if not course history -- course familiarity.

"I played quite a few rounds here at Shadow Creek so I know the greens pretty well, I know kind of the little intricacies of this place," Kokrak said, according to the PGA Tour transcript. "Not like some of the local caddies, but it is definitely a place that I feel comfortable at. I played 20, 25 rounds here before even playing this tournament or before teeing it up, but it plays a lot different. The greens are always this fast, but they're never this firm."

Kokrak has been a regular on Tour since 2012. The closest he had come to winning was as a runner-up, done three times, lastly at the 2019 Valspar (when he finished fifth in putting, not so coincidentally). He's surely no slouch; he had been ranked 53rd in the world coming in and now stands at a career-best 26th. He had finished top-20 in four of his past five starts. He's like so many other guys who compile a lot of good weeks and high finishes without often contending because of their putter.

Kokrak came to the par-5 18th with a one-stroke lead and absolutely striped his drive 342 yards. A final birdie made the winning margin two strokes for the 80-1 shot. That seemed about right for a player falling somewhere in the middle of this 78-man field, not someone with a significant advantage over most of the other golfers.

On the other hand, it's not as if Kokrak was the only one familiar with Shadow Creek. Some of the other golfers talked of playing it before, and there were four other MGM ambassadors in the field. Harry Higgs tied for 21st, Joel Dahmen tied for 38th, Kevin Na tied for 45th and Adam Long tied for 74th.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Xander Schauffele
Let's talk about Schauffele for moment. There's no shame in finishing second to Kokrak. Especially at Shadow Creek. It's not a huge surprise. But it's still a surprise. As we all know, Schauffele is in the mix in big events time after time after time. But he's now coming up on two years since he last won – at the Tournament of Champions in January 2019. This is not a Tony Finau stretch of futility – Schauffele has won four times -- but it's not nothing, either. He came to the par-5 16th tied with Kokrak and promptly bogeyed. Then on 18, after Kokrak crushed his drive, Schauffele missed the fairway, all but deciding the tournament right there. This was not a steady finish. He's been runner-up six times since that last win, and this was probably his best chance of all of them. Schauffele moved up to a notch to No. 7 in the world, passing Webb Simpson. But Simpson has won twice in 2020 and three times since Schauffele last did. Like we said, this is not nothing.

Tyrrell Hatton
Hatton won the BMW PGA Championship in a good but far from great Euro field last week, then hopped on a plane from England to Vegas. He didn't miss a beat, tying for third to move up one spot to ninth in the world rankings. He really is showing he can be an elite player and very well could be in the conversation at Augusta, which is now just four weeks away.

Russell Henley
Henley had the lead on Sunday, so he will have some disappointment in tying for third. But he continued a positive trend since the restart, as one of the best on Tour in Strokes Gained: Approach. Putting has always been his trouble spot. But after putting pretty well at the Shriners a week ago, he was outstanding at Shadow Creek, ranking second in the field. His tee-to-green game has been so good that any semblance of decent putting should land Henley a high finish. He surged almost 50 sports in the world rankings to 76th, his best position in more than two years.

Brooks Koepka
After returning from a two-month injury absence, the leaderboard was secondary. Completing four, healthy rounds was primary. But Koepka did relatively well, tying for 28th. He is taking this week off so we may not see him again till the Houston Open the week before the Masters. But this was an encouraging sign.

Talor Gooch
Gooch had a long streak of made cuts in the front part of last season, although there weren't many high finishes. This solo fifth represents his first top-10 since Riviera in February and has moved him to a career-best 116th in the world rankings.

Lanto Griffin
This has been quite a stretch for golf for Griffin, who now sits at a career-best 59th in the world rankings. He tied for seventh at Shadow Creek, adding to a top-20 at the PGA, a top-10 at the BMW Championship, a good showing at the Tour Championship and a made cut at the U.S. Open. Griffin will try to keep it going this week at the ZOZO Championship.

Bubba Watson
He's kinda/sorta playing well. Having fallen into the 60s OWGR, Watson has finished top-25 in four of his past six starts, including the WGC-FedEx, the first two playoff events and now the CJ Cup. This was the best of the bunch with a tie for seventh. Honestly, it's impossible to predict what Bubba will do next. Although this kinda/sorta good stretch is unlikely to continue for long.

Sebastian Munoz
Munoz keeps playing well just about every week, no matter the field. This time it was a tie for ninth, moving him to career-high OWGR for the second week in a row, now 63rd. He was outstanding in the FedEx playoffs (two top-10s, one top-20) and made the cut at the U.S. Open. He also registered a top-25 in his Sanderson title defense – which is harder than it sounds.

Patrick Cantlay
Cantlay's results during the second half of the season were not befitting of a player bordering on the top-10 in the world. He tied for eighth a week ago at the Shriners, but considering his history there and the Sunday fade, that wasn't great, either. So his tie for 38th only adds to his recent subpar play.

Scottie Scheffler
Scheffler has now gone T37-MC-T52 since missing the U.S. Open after testing positive. He said he was asymptomatic, but he obviously has not played well since returning. Is there a connection to COVID-19? We don't know. Scheffler will play again this week at the ZOZO.

Tommy Fleetwood
Fleetwood tied for 59th. He was a late arrival in the States after the restart and had some poor results, but in light of all that's been going in the world, maybe they should come with an asterisk. He returned to Europe and promptly found his form with a couple of podium finishes, seemingly indicating his struggles were temporary. But now that he's had another poor PGA Tour event, it's fair to wonder whether those high Euro finishes were linked to weak fields.

Joohyung Kim
This was the Korean teenager's fourth tournament outside of Asia. He's yet to show he's ready for the PGA Tour. The 18-year-old Kim finished solo 64th, following a missed cut at the PGA Championship, a T67 at the Safeway and a T33 at Puntacana. His ranking has fallen to 125th OWGR.

Gary Woodland
Woodland talked of familiarity with Shadow Creek so his 72nd-place finish in the 78-man field, combined with his recent results, are a little troubling. He has now gone six straight events without so much as a top-30.

Phil Mickelson
He made it 2-for-2 on the Champions Tour. Does it really matter. We'll see Mickelson back on the big tour this week at the ZOZO.