TPC Craig Ranch is being completely dismantled at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson.
Si Woo Kim shot a second-round 60 to take a commanding lead at the CJ Cup, posting a score of 18-under after two rounds. But he isn’t the only one to have a field day at Craig Ranch.
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Sungjae Im and Jordan Spieth shot 61 and 62, respectively, in the same group, and Scottie Scheffler shot a 63, as the perfect conditions combined with a soft course left the place defenceless.
The cut line was six under par, meaning Michael Brennan and Haotong Li missed the cut despite shooting two rounds in the 60s.
In the midst of this birdie fest, Michael Kim took to social media to share his criticisms of TPC Craig Ranch.
Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images
What Michael Kim can’t understand about Craig Ranch’s renovation
TPC Craig Ranch recently underwent a $25 million renovation to make it a sterner test for PGA Tour pros. The biggest changes were to the greens, which are now massively undulating and sloping.
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Still, Si Woo Kim took the golf course apart with a score of 60, and Michael Kim took to X to joke that another renovation should be on the way.
He said, “A 50m renovation incoming at TPC Craig Ranch thx to Si Woo??? 😂
“Glad I’m not playing this week lol”
Michael Kim went on to say that designer Lanny Wadkins made a mistake by sowing the greens with bentgrass, which has made the golf course incredibly soft.
He continued, “Idk why some Dallas clubs still try to do bent greens. It will always be soft and mush during the summer. It’s like a status symbol that’s meaningless.”
Why changing to bentgrass was a mistake for TPC Craig Ranch
The decision to transition the greens at TPC Craig Ranch to 777 Bentgrass during its recent multi-million dollar renovation can be viewed as a costly misstep for a North Texas venue.
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Managing a cool-season turf like bentgrass in the brutal, unrelenting heat of a Dallas summer is an uphill battle. While modern cultivars boast improved heat tolerance, they remain fundamentally ill-suited for the region’s climate.
Keeping bentgrass alive through July and August requires staggering amounts of water, expensive subterranean cooling systems, and intensive labor, which is terrible for the environment and costly to the club.
Furthermore, first-year bentgrass greens notoriously lack the architectural maturity needed for professional play. Because cool-season grasses undergo severe summer stress, the course risks major turf thinning or disease outbreaks right when member play peaks.
Rather than fighting Texas nature with bentgrass, sticking to a heat-loving, drought-resistant warm-season grass would have ensured year-round consistency, lowered operational overhead, and provided a far more sustainable premium playing surface.
Instead, the course has set itself up for costly failure every single summer.
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