Jason Kokrak doesn’t exactly feel like CJ Cup defending champ

Jason Kokrak has waited 10 years to defend a title on the PGA Tour. With his first opportunity this week at the CJ Cup, Kokrak doesn’t really have that special feeling.

Kokrak won his maiden PGA Tour title last year when the tournament was at Shadow Creek. This time around, he defends at The Summit Club, a course he had never seen before Monday.

“I can’t say that I do feel like the defending champion,” he said Tuesday. “But I did walk into the player locker room about 20 minutes ago to grab a quick bite to eat and my picture’s up there with Justin Thomas and Brooks Koepka.”

Thomas and Koepka are also former champions, but those wins came in South Korea, where the tournament is supposed to be played. Las Vegas has gotten the call for a second time this week because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s kind of a surreal experience to see myself up there on the board as a past champion,” he said.

Kokrak will get the actual experience of defending on the same course in May when he plays the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, where he recorded his second win last season.

New man on the bag

It’s a new season and a new caddie for Thomas, who has veteran Jim “Bones” Mackay on his bag starting this week.

Mackay is best known for working with Phil Mickelson for 25 years, teaming for 42 of his 45 PGA Tour victories. Mackay and Mickelson parted ways in 2017, and he has since worked as an on-course analyst for NBC Sports.

“Obviously I’m comfortable right now, and I think he’s comfortable now,” Thomas said of the new pairing. “I’m sure as more and more events go on, like anything you just get better and better. At least that’s the hope.”

Thomas has had one regular caddie since joining the tour in 2015, but he and Jimmy Johnson split after the Ryder Cup. Mackay has filled in twice with Thomas when Johnson was unavailable, including a win at the 2020 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational.

“I think the exciting part about it is that we’re already very confident,” Thomas said. “I feel like we can do a lot of great things.”

Field set

The 78-player field was completed Monday with the addition of eight Korean players, including the top three in the world rankings not already in the tournament and the top five players from the Korean PGA.

Those spots are reserved since the tournament is usually played in South Korea but was moved to Las Vegas for the second consecutive year. The tournament is also sponsored by Korean conglomerate CJ.

Added to the field were Byeong Hun An, Hanbyeol Kim, Joohyung Kim, Minkyu Kim, Seonghyeon Kim, Jaekyeong Lee, Yoseop Seo and Sanghun Shin.

Greg Robertson covers golf for the Review-Journal. He can be reached at grobertson@reviewjournal.com.