TPC Craig Ranch invested $25 million to shed its reputation as the Tour’s easiest course for birdies. Lanny Wadkins changed the greens, made the bunkers tougher, and added slopes to reward accuracy. The goal was to make winning scores reflect a true championship test. Now, Scottie Scheffler is openly wondering if officials will stick to that plan.

“A lot of it depends on where they want to put the pins,” Scheffler said at his pre-tournament press conference on Wednesday. “If they want to get really aggressive, the scoring could be drastically different, just based upon the slopes and the greens.”

Scottie Scheffler won here last May at 31-under par, matching the PGA Tour’s 72-hole scoring record. The course did not challenge the field. Wadkins set a renovation goal of a winning score between 12 and 15-under. After seeing the changes, Scheffler suggested the new setup could play even tougher than Wadkins intended.

“Like if they wanted the winning score here to be 5- to 10-under par, I think they could do it if they wanted to, just based on where they put the pins, but would that be the best test? Who knows.”

That is not a complaint. It is a diagnosis. Scheffler acknowledged that the course is more interesting and more demanding of thought than its previous version. He kept returning to one word about the new green slopes: aggressive. The renovation gave officials options that the old Craig Ranch never offered.

Wadkins created the new greens with small, clearly marked pin areas close to steep slopes. This design increases the range of possible scores instead of just making things harder. When Wadkins was first chosen for the job, a golf architecture panel wondered if his approach really matched what a PGA Tour course should require, as mentioned in an earlier report. That doubt is still around. Now, it shows up in how the course is set up, not just in the plans.

The issue is not limited to the pin positions for a single event. The Tour faces a recurring problem when renovations make a course so dependent on slopes that setup decisions become more important than the design itself.

This problem is not unique to McKinney, Texas. Other renovated Tour venues have faced the same challenge.

TPC Craig Ranch, Scottie Scheffler, and the PGA Tour’s renovation trap

Caves Valley Golf Club underwent major reconstruction in 2023 after the 2021 BMW Championship ended with record-low scores and a marathon playoff. The course was tightened, greens rebuilt, and extra length added to make it tougher. The Tour wanted a stronger test. Instead, after the 2025 BMW Championship, players were almost unanimous in their criticism.

A previous report on the renovation’s impact quoted veteran Lucas Glover, who said that in 21 years he had never seen so many players agree in their dislike for a course. Players called the new greens “crazy” and felt the renovation went too far. In contrast, Scheffler has praised the changes at Craig Ranch, which sets it apart. Still, the main issue remains: when a course is rebuilt to prevent low scores and now has steep slopes that could make it too hard, everything depends on how the course is set up.

Scheffler suggested that how the course is set up is the most important factor.

“I think a lot of it just comes down to setup,” he said. “If they set it up where the pins aren’t very close to the slopes, you could see similar scoring.”

The renovated TPC Craig Ranch will host competition starting Thursday. Lanny Wadkins designed the course, and the Salesmanship Club decides where to place the pins. How these two choices come together will determine whether the tournament offers a fair challenge or creates new problems.