McKINNEY – The sun finally emerged Friday, brightly illuminating a near-historic and action-packed second round that was exactly what the CJ Cup Byron Nelson needed. 

South Koreans and Dallasites dominated the day, punctuated by Si Woo Kim’s 11-under 60 at TPC Craig Ranch — only a bogey on No. 18 keeping him from the 16th sub-60 round in PGA Tour history. 

Kim is 18-under entering the weekend. Among those in his wake and tied for second at 13-under are fellow South Korean Sungjae Im and World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.  

Scheffler’s fellow Dallasite and local fan favorite Jordan Spieth is 12-under after a Friday round of 62 that included a personal PGA Tour best six straight birdies. 

What more could a South Korea-based title sponsor and North Texas fanbase want entering the weekend? Kim appeals to both, as a Dallas resident and native of Seoul, where CJ Group is based. 

“I hit it great and putted great,” said Kim, who hit his approach to No. 18 over the green and failed to get up and down. “So everything was perfect, other than the last hole.  

“I'll still take it. Sixty is hard, but I was a little bit thinking about the 59 after I made that [15-foot putt] on 17. It was a little bit of adrenaline.” 

Scheffler, who shot one of the 14 59s in tour history, in the second round of the 2020 Northern Trust Open, is a friend and frequent practice partner of Kim’s. Of course, much like a no-hitter in baseball, there was no discussion down the stretch of a potential 59.    

“I felt like I was hitting all my shots to 15, 20 feet and Si Woo was hitting all his shots to like 8 feet or closer,” Scheffler said. “It was fun to watch.  

“I was glad for myself to be able to kind of stay in the tournament. I made some nice putts there on the back nine, but it's always fun to watch Si Woo do his thing.” 

It’s extra fortuitous that local fans get to watch Scheffler and Spieth do their thing in contention this weekend. Due to timing and the packed nature of this year’s PGA Tour schedule, neither is entered in next week’s Charles Schwab Challenge at Fort Worth’s Colonial Country Club. 

“It’s nice having them back-to-back weeks, but I just think it’s the timing of them, following a major and sandwiched in-between a bunch of other events we historically play, as well,” Scheffler told The Dallas Morning News. 

“I’ve said it before, but if I had my way I’d play every tournament on the PGA Tour. It’s just the schedule and all the other stuff that goes with it. Mentally, you can only play so many weeks, especially in a row, and you’ve got to take care of the body and mind.” 

This year’s Nelson field only includes three of the world’s top 50-ranked players: Scheffler, No. 24 Kim and No. 47 Spieth. 

No doubt a significant factor is that in five of the past six weeks of the PGA Tour schedule, there has either been a major tournament (Masters in April, PGA Championship last week) or one of the tour’s $20 million Signature Events. 

Wanting to play one of North Texas’ events, Scheffler and Spieth both bypassed the May 7-10 Truist Championship in Charlotte, a Signature Event.  After Colonial next week is another Signiture Event, Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament, where Scheffler is the two-time reigning champion.  

Next May brings another tournament to North Texas that will dominate most of the local golf oxygen. The PGA Championship will be played May 20-23 on PGA Frisco’s Fields Ranch East Course. 

That sets up a potential Nelson, PGA Championship, Schwab Challenge triple-header, but fortunately, several people close to the Nelson tournament told The News that the tour has indicated next year’s Nelson will be in late April or early May – between the April 8-11 Masters and PGA Championship. 

“That would be great,” Spieth told The News. “Because I'm stuck right now this year. 

“If I were to play next week and the one after [Memorial], that goes to six in a row, with three Elevated and a major in there. And then the two in between are Dallas and Fort Worth. 

“It's just a rock and a hard place for myself and Scottie and guys who are local, who grew up here. There's just such a premium on the Elevated Events.” 

While Scheffler was paired with Kim and Brooks Koepka here Thursday and Friday, Spieth was grouped with Im and Chris Kirk. 

Im and Spieth shot, respectively, 61 and 62 – a warmup, it turns out, for the afternoon Kim-Scheffler fireworks. 

Spieth seemed to enjoy Im’s round as much as Scheffler admired Kim’s. Spieth thought he had the edge on Im until the South Korean’s 5-iron from 222 yards out on his next-to-last hole, No. 7, rolled into the cup. Two holes later, Im added a final punctuation, an eagle. 

“I was hurting my head trying to figure out what our best ball was,” Spieth said. “I think it was 57, which is pretty good.”

Rain is in the forecast this weekend, so much so that on Saturday the tour has players again grouped in threes and playing off split tees – with tee times ranging from approximately 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. 

Preferred lies were in effect on both Thursday and Friday. That, soft greens and very little wind certainly have contributed to the low scores. 

Scheffler, Spieth and other players, though, have favorable opinions of the TPC Craig Ranch’s $25 million makeover by Lanny Wadkins’ design team. 

“I think it's awesome,” Spieth said. “The problem right now is this is like the first time in the history of Dallas, Texas, that you'll have four or five days of very little east wind and soft conditions in May. 

“You get your normal [south] wind we had on Monday out here, that's how it's designed. I think it would show that it's significantly harder, but also fair.” 

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