With the dust now settled on this year’s edition of the Ryder Cup, it is time for golf’s collective focus to return to the PGA Tour and with the CJ Cup approaching the horizon, the opportunity to settle previous scores will be made available.
That’s because neither the members of the United States team who were triumphant or the European team who were valiant in defeat, will be putting their feet up, and with a litany of star names announced on this year’s CJ Cup entry list, the battle lines will once again be drawn.
Of course, this battle will be contested across individual lines, and with nine members of 2021 the United States Ryder Cup team in action, their recent kinship is one that will be quickly forgotten by the time Thursday’s first tee takes place.
From the dozen that returned the trophy back to American soil, Daniel Berger, Harris English, Tony Finau, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler, and Justin Thomas are the men who will be trying their luck in this year’s edition of the CJ Cup.
While of the twelve that wore European colors a few weeks ago, Paul Casey, Tommy Fleetwood, Sergio Garcia, Viktor Hovland, Shane Lowry, Ian Poulter, and Lee Westwood, will be looking for some form of revenge.
Revenge that only really comes about, if they are in a position to be at the top of the leaderboard at the end of Sunday afternoon and a look at the current odds, suggests that more American dominance is on the way.
The dominance that would come in the form of victory from current joint-favorites Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas and after their recent showing at the Whistling Straits course, it is hard to argue against such a case.
While if you feel that either of these stateside heroes will come out on top and you want to test your betting acumen, then the BetMGM Sportsbook is the ideal place for you to place a wager on the CJ Cup.
In terms of the competition itself, it is one that was previously held in South Korea and another reason why Justin Thomas has been backed so heavily before the opening tee, is because he has won the tournament twice before.
When you consider it was held on three separate occasions in South Korea and Thomas won twice in both 2017 and 2019, to call him “Mr CJ Cup” is not something that can be considered ludicrous.
With the Nine Bridges course in Jeju Island initially staging the tournament between 2017 and 2019, it was Brooks Kopeka who was the only other person to win on the Asian continent, as he won by four strokes in 2018.
Kopeka managed to get the better of a talented field that year and with his entry this year, he will look to match Thomas’ two CJ Cup wins in total – albeit in a different location and a different host country.
Because with COVID-19 having a vice-like grip on sports over the past 18 months or so, a switch away from Asia was necessary and with the state of Nevada playing the role of host, it was Jason Kokrak who won in 2020.
Kokrak won by a margin of two strokes, as he edged Xander Schauffele into second place, and with the Shadow Creek course staging the class of 2020, there was discussion for it to also play host this time around.
However, the powers that be, have decided that although the CJ Cup will stay within the state of Nevada, it will move course for 2021 and this year, it is The Summit Club that has been awarded the right to host this upcoming golfing party.
One that will offer up four days of frenetic golfing action and for the names listed above, their first task will be to make sure they are still in a position to tee off on Saturday morning and in doing so, avoid the cut at halfway.
Should any of the 2021 Ryder Cup competitors be in a position to take to the opening hole on Saturday, then they may well be in a strong position to go all the way and if they do, they will earn themselves a sizable amount of prize money in their pursuit of CJ Cup victory
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