Golf betting tips: Preview and tips for the 2022 CJ Cup in South Carolina

The CJ Cup was added to the PGA Tour rota in 2017. The first three editions were played at the Nine Bridges Golf Club on Jeju Island, South Korea.

As a direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament was moved in 2020 to Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas. Last year, the tournament was contested at the exclusive Summit Club in Las Vegas.

This year, the event will be held at Congaree Golf Club in Gillisonville, South Carolina, near Hilton Head Island.

Congaree Golf Club is an exclusively private club built on a former 18th century rice plantation. The club was founded by two of the richest people in the US, Dan Friedkin and the late Robert C “Bob” McNair.

Dan Friedkin is chairman of The Friedkin Group, a privately held consortium of businesses in the automotive, luxury hospitality, golf and entertainment industries. Bob McNair was owner of the NFL’s Houston Texans and chairman of The McNair Group.

Congaree Golf Club’s main focus is on philanthropy using the passion for golf for the greater good. Instead of having members paying an entry fee, the club has “ambassadors”. There is no paying of an entry fee, instead, ambassadors are encouraged to donate to the Congaree Foundation. The ambassadors are also encouraged to be active in helping youths, whom could be local or abroad.  

Course Overview

Congaree Golf Club was designed by Tom Fazio in South Carolina’s Lowcountry. It opened for play in 2017 and will play as a 7,655 yard Par 71 for this week’s CJ Cup.

The course does not have rough. Instead, fairways feed into bunkers, water or native areas, waiting to catch errant drives or over aggressive tee shots.

Congaree has a natural look that plays firm and fast. The layout lends itself to the ground game with fast and challenging greens. Water and wetlands are in play on many holes with plenty forced carries.

Massive oak trees are also in play and can dictate lines and angles to the green. Many of the greens are narrow and set at an angle to the tees and fairways.

The course features a variety of challenges from short Par 4s to Par 4’s that can stretch to over 500 yards. The Par 5 4th looks daunting at a mouth watering 645 yards. The fairways twist and turn at odd distances and angles, so long hitters could risk driving through fairways on several holes.

Several holes are doglegged requiring an ability to shape the ball both ways. Accuracy off the tee is more important than distance, but neither of those two components are as important as hitting the greens in regulation and putting.

2021 Palmetto Championship at Congaree GC | Garrick Higgo

Winning Score -11 (273)

In 2021, the PGA Tour announced a one-off event, the Palmetto Championship which was staged at Congaree Golf Club. The tournament was a replacement for the RBC Canadian Open which was cancelled that year due to challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Garrick Higgo, won the tournament on a score of -11 (273). He finished one-stroke clear of a group of six players which included Tyrrell Hatton and Doc Redman. The South African golfer finished 8^th in Strokes Gained Tee-To-Green which equated to a gain of 8.547 strokes or almost 70% of his overall strokes gained for the tournament. In particular his iron-play on approach was dialled-in which contributed one-third of his overall gain.

Garrick Higgo Strokes Gained Category	Strokes Gained	Finishing Position (SG Category)
SGOTT	3.392	13th
SGAPR	4.564	11th
SGARG	0.592	40th
SGP	3.765	15th
SGT2G	8.547	8th

CJ Cup Tips & Predictions

Sam Burns 25/1 (E/W) – finished T5 on his debut appearance in the CJ Cup last year played at the Summit Club in Las Vegas. Dusted the cobwebs off for this season with a T30 in the Sanderson’s Farm Championship. Around the Country Club of Jackson he topped the pile in Strokes Gained Off-The-Tee gaining an impressive 3.935 strokes on the field average. Despite weak Proximity stats he still features just outside the Top 10 in this week’s Stats Analysis (based on last season’s stats). If he gets the balance throughout the bag then he should be in the mix. The 26-year-old ticks a lot of boxes to make it win number five on Tour.