Dustin Johnson withdraws from CJ Cup after testing positive for COVID-19

Reigning FedExCup champion and world No. 1 Dustin Johnson headlines the field at the AT&T Byron Nelson, which moves to TPC Craig Ranch for the first time. Sung Kang defends his maiden PGA TOUR title from 2019 after the event was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. FIELD NOTES: Dallas native and Special Temporary Member Will Zalatoris, runner-up at the Masters, will be aiming for his first PGA TOUR win. This will be his first time playing the Byron Nelson as a pro; he played in 2016 as a teenage amateur. Zalatoris missed the cut at the Wells Fargo Championship, his first early exit since November… While TPC Craig Ranch is new for the tournament, it’s not for the defending champion. Sung Kang is a member of the club and looks to become the first since Tom Watson to defend his Byron Nelson title. Watson won three years in a row… World No. 1 Dustin Johnson is looking to break out of a lull with the PGA Championship around the corner. He hasn’t notched a top-10 finish on TOUR since February. This is Johnson’s first start at the Byron Nelson since 2017. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 FedExCup points. STORYLINES: Dallas native and Special Temporary Member Will Zalatoris, runner-up at the Masters, will be aiming for his first PGA TOUR win. This will be his first time playing the Byron Nelson as a pro; he played in 2016 as a teenage amateur. Zalatoris missed the cut at the Wells Fargo Championship, his first early exit since November… While TPC Craig Ranch is new for the tournament, it’s not for the defending champion. Sung Kang is a member of the club and looks to become the first since Tom Watson to defend his Byron Nelson title. Watson won three years in a row… World No. 1 Dustin Johnson is looking to break out of a lull with the PGA Championship around the corner. He hasn’t notched a top-10 finish on TOUR since February. This is Johnson’s first start at the Byron Nelson since 2017. COURSE: TPC Craig Ranch, par 72, 7,468 yards. Designed by Tom Weiskopf and completed in 2004, the course has hosted events on the Korn Ferry Tour along with Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying School. This is the first time TPC Craig Ranch has hosted a PGA TOUR event. The move to TPC Craig Ranch, which is located in McKinney, Texas, comes after two years at Trinity Forest – an ambitious design by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. TPC Craig Ranch will host the Bryon Nelson for the next five years. It features Zoysia fairways and bentgrass greens, and Rowlett Creek crosses the course 14 times. 72-HOLE RECORD: 259, Steven Bowditch, 2015 at TPC Four Seasons. Aaron Wise and Sung Kang’s 23-under 261 in 2018 and 2019, respectively, are the lowest against par; Bowditch was 18 under after heavy rain turned TPC Four Seasons into a par 69 for the final three rounds. 18-HOLE RECORD: 60, Arron Oberholser (2nd round, 2006 at Cottonwood Valley GC), Keegan Bradley (1st round, 2013 at TPC Four Seasons). LAST TIME: With the 2020 AT&T Byron Nelson cancelled due to the pandemic, this year sees Sung Kang defend his 2019 title – his maiden TOUR victory. After a 61 in the second round, Kang converted the 54-hole lead and won by two over Matt Every and Scott Piercy despite bogeying the 72nd hole. Every got close but bogeyed the par-4 15th and couldn’t birdie any of the final three holes. Piercy’s 64 on Sunday was tied for the round of the day, but he started the final round too far back. Brooks Koepka finished solo fourth, while five golfers finished T5 including Peter Uihlein and Kiradech Aphibarnrat, who tied Piercy’s 64 in the final round. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 3:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel), Saturday-Sunday, 1 p.m.-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (CBS) PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 7:45 a.m.-6:30 p.m. ET (Featured Groups). Saturday-Sunday, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. ET (Featured Groups), 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (Featured Holes) Radio: Thursday-Friday, 1 p.m.-6:30 p.m. ET. Saturday-Sunday, 1 p.m.-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio). TOURCast: Get shot-by-shot info in real time with shot tracks and video with TOURCast. TOUR Pulse: Get the PGA TOUR app to utilize TOUR Pulse, which provides users the ability to experience a mix of content, such as video highlights, written hole summaries and stat graphics on every player after every hole they complete.

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SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. – Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth have won 12 majors between them, including two U.S. Opens, so it was odd to see this super-group go a combined 11 over for their first four holes at the 118th U.S. Open at windy Shinnecock Hills on Thursday. And they were just getting started. Mickelson hit 13 of 14 fairways but still made just one birdie and signed for a 77. Spieth triple-bogeyed the par-3 11th, the “shortest par-5 in America,â€� and hit several good shots on the way to a 78. McIlroy had to play the last seven holes in even for an 80. “Just tried to do a little too much on the second hole and it kind of bit me,â€� said Spieth, who found a greenside bunker at 11 and failed to hold the slippery green with his next two shots before two-putting for his triple. “From there it was just kind of a grind. Played pretty well to be even through the rest of the nine and then just didn’t make very good swings. “There were certainly some dicey pins,â€� Spieth added, “but at the same time there was guys that shot under par. I could have played better.â€� England’s Ian Poulter and American Scott Piercy each shot 1-under 69 to share the early lead. “This golf course is an extremely difficult course to play with no wind,â€� said Poulter, who hit 11 of 14 fairways and made three birdies. “Playing at 25-mile-an-hour wind is pretty stressful.â€� Justin Rose (71), a two-time winner this season and one of the pre-tournament favorites, said Thursday was about maintaining composure and minimizing the damage.   “Happy it’s over,â€� he said. He meant the first round, but others were left to wonder if it wasn’t over in the larger sense, having perhaps shot themselves completely out of the tournament. Scott Stallings had a long par putt at the par-4 14th hole, but not only missed, he watched his ball sail past the pin, off the green and down a swale. He made a 9 on the way to an 80. Satoshi Kodaira, who won the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head earlier this season, failed to make a birdie and shot 81. Jason Day, a two-time winner so far this season, came in with a 79. At least they didn’t enter the record books. Scott Gregory, a promising young player who won the 2016 British Amateur and now plays on the European Challenge Tour, shot 92, the first U.S. Open round in the 90s since the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black.      Day, who hit just seven of 14 fairways, cited not just the stiff wind but also the USGA’s choice of pin positions as contributing to the difficulty Thursday. “It’s hard enough,â€� he said after making just one birdie. “We’ve got at least 20 miles an hour of wind. Shinnecock is hard. If you’re not quite there, you don’t hit enough fairways—you’ve just got to hit fairways first, and I didn’t do that and that’s why I played bad.â€� Mickelson hit fairways but still didn’t score. His group racked up a triple-bogey (Spieth), and back-to-back doubles (McIlroy at 13 and 14) before the day’s first birdie (McIlroy at 15). While Mickelson was trying to become just the sixth player to win the career Grand Slam, he now has work to do just to make the cut on a course where he finished second to Retief Goosen in 2004. The carnage continued in the afternoon as Tiger Woods’ second shot missed long at the first hole, his next two pitches rolled back off the turtle-back green and he made a triple-bogey 7. Brooks Koepka tied the record score in relation to par when he shot 16 under to win the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills, but there was no such magic this time around as he shot an opening 75. On the bright side, no one will come close to 16 under at Shinnecock. “It’s a U.S. Open,â€� Koepka said. “You can shoot, whatever, 5 over today and shoot 1 under tomorrow and be just fine going into the weekend. So, I’m not too concerned.â€� For him and others who were blown away, the promise of tomorrow was all they had left. 

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