The First Tee – CJ Cup

Another no-cut event on the other side of the world (depending where you live!) with an early-week lock and a short field, but unlike last week, the CJ Cup is no birdie-fest and personally I can’t recommend watching this event any more than I already do. This course is so much fun, and should be appointment viewing to see golfers away from their typical TPC/tried and tested PGA courses.

THE COURSE

The CJ Cup is played at Nine Bridges on Jeju Island – the ninth bridge being metaphorical – as a par-72 that plays just under 7,200 yards. Last year, Nine Bridges was the fourth-toughest course, with Justin Thomas winning in playoff at -9 against Marc Leishman. To give an idea of the toughness, the 25^th-best score (Adam Scott) was Even, and the other 63 golfers were above par. Beyond the long par-5s, the course is actually relatively short; there are only two par-4s above 450-yards, and three par-4s play below 400 – two at 353! With that being said, last year only saw four holes play below par, two par-4s and two par-5s.

Unfortunately, there’s no ShotLink data again, which makes digging into the course that much more important.

The front nine at Nine Bridges is closer to a regular Euro Tour event, or even some PGA courses, as it has wide fairways and thin rough, with some hazards in the form of creeks and stone walls. The back half, however, is closer to a Scottish links course: tighter fairways than the front that feature some bumps and rolls, taller grass in the rough, and tough greens that can be extremely hard to hold depending on the weather.

Off the tee, golfers need to avoid the fairway bunkers as the depth and slope is deceivingly-hard and severe, as well as a small amount of trees along with the regular hazards. That being said, driver could still be in play on about 1/3 of the course, as the holes with the wider fairways are very inviting.

As mentioned, there is some bumps and rolls – or slopes and undulation if you prefer – in the fairways, which will have the benefit of rolling the ball farther but also makes placing it a little tougher. Accuracy is key here, as players can pull long irons or woods and still get good distance off the tee.

Approach shots should be relatively short here, given the setup of the course; as always, adjust your ranges to the length of golfers, but the average golfer should be looking at approach distances of 125-175 and longer golfers at 100-150. The bentgrass greens are large, which is good, but can be tough to hold and are very tough to read.

I wrote this last year, and I’m plagiarizing myself but wanted to highlight how much fun this course is:

“The 18^th hole (or 9^th on the Highland course) sets up to be the most fun of the week, as a 568-yard par-5 with a large peninsula green. It’s got a very wide end of the fairway to allow golfers to lay up safely, but also offers a clear path for the ultra-aggressive from about 240 yards away.”

 

STATS

The Strokes Gained stats to focus on in order (not including Tee to Green):

• Approach
• Off-The-Tee
• Putting
• Around the Green

Counting stats to focus on in order:

• Bogey Avoidance
• Driving Accuracy / Distance from Edge of the Fairway
• Approach Shots: 100-150 Yards / 125-175 (take note of who you’re considering)
• Par-5 Birdie or Better
• Greens in Regulation

Top-Tier Golfer

Emiliano Grillo ($8800)

Pros: While it’s not a birdie-specialist course, Grillo’s scoring performance can keep him in contention this week while also giving him a load of points for DFS. He made birdie or better on 21.8% of holes last year but excelled on par-3s and also sat 22^nd in Bogey Avoidance. He’s extremely talented on approach, a combined -61 on approaches between 100-150 yards (T26/T12), but most importantly is deadly accurate off the tee.

Cons: Grillo is short off the tee, bad around the greens, and in the past has gone hot and cold with the putter. Last year was better than expected by a long shot on the greens, but Grillo also had some events where he was horrific and couldn’t sink a four-footer. He’s not much of a birdie-maker on the par-5s thanks to the lack of distance.

 

Byeong Hun An ($8700 and yes, he was also a write-up last week)

Pros: Finished T11 here last year, and still sets up well for this course. He was T12th from tee to green last year, only makes bogey on 14.95% of holes (38^th), and his approach ranges rate out well: 20’2” to the hole from 100-125, and 20’8” from 125-150 yards out. Last season he hit 68.61% of greens in regulation, made birdie or better 60% of the time when he went for the green in two, and overall ranked 18^th in SG: Approach.

Cons: His accuracy is *still* a definite issue, as is his putting and play from the sand. His driving accuracy of only 59% should see an increase this week as he can club down, but he still ranked 120^th in that category last year and hit something other than fairway or rough on just under 6% of tee shots. The putting should be about the same as it was last week, which is to say not good, and An’s proximity to the hole when he ends up in a bunker is not to be shown without a NSFW label attached.

OTHER: Paul Casey ($9900)

 

Value Golfer (below $8000)

Abraham Ancer ($7700):

Pros: Last year, Ancer ranked 32^nd in Bogey Avoidance (14.76%), averaged 4.01 on the par-4s, and was T41 in SG: OTT thanks to good driving accuracy and average distance. Statistically, there isn’t much pretty to look at with his all-around game, but his results have been sound: he’s coming off a T5 last week at the CIMB, and from August to now had finishes of T4, 5, T7 and almost made it to the FedEx finals.

Cons: All the stats that don’t reflect what a good player he is should paint the picture of a bad player, but remember that these stats are full-year and not rolling. For the full year, Ancer lost strokes around and on the greens and only ranked 92^nd in SG: Approach; his BoB% of only 20.49 ranked him 108^th.

 

Chez Reavie ($7000):

Pros: Incredibly accurate off the tee, so Chez won’t end up in some of the poor spots a lot of the rest of the field will find themselves in; his ranking of 3^rd in that category helps explain Reavie’s Bogey Avoidance ranking of 21^st, and his strong par-3 and -4 scoring at 3.00 (T5) and 3.99 (T15) respectively. Although he lacks distance, he still scored well on the -3s and -4s – but obviously not the par-5s. His approach proximity ranks 4^th from 150-175 yards and T7 from 175-200 so he’ll be fine even with his lack of distance off the tee. He finished T15 here last year.

Cons: He’s not a *good* putter by any stretch although he doesn’t lose stroke in that category, but where he does lose strokes is around the greens and in his major lack of distance off the tee. He actually doesn’t have many other holes in his game, he’s just a low-key golfer who’s good in most aspects of the game but never pops on leaderboards because of his lack of eagle-making.

You can follow me on Twitter @adalyfrey and good luck this week!