MCKINNEY, TEXAS – MAY 21: Si Woo Kim of South Korea hits a tee shot on the 13th hole during the first round of THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson 2026 at TPC Craig Ranch on May 21, 2026 in McKinney, Texas. (Photo by Mike Mulholland/Getty Images for The CJ Cup)
Getty Images for The CJ Cup
Outside of golf’s four majors, where dart-throwing approach shots and chip-in birdies suck up most of the oxygen, many annual PGA Tour stops quietly serve a second purpose beyond crowning a champion on Sunday afternoon.
The Genesis Invitational provides Hyundai’s luxury Genesis marque an al fresco showroom alongside Riviera’s eucalyptus-lined fairways and in front of millions of television viewers. The Travelers Championship doubles as a sprawling corporate hospitality machine for the insurance giant. The RBC Canadian Open reinforces the cross-border reach of one of North America’s largest banking brands. Even the Charles Schwab Challenge functions as a four-day advertisement for wealth management services and retirement portfolios.
At this week’s CJ Cup Byron Nelson, CJ Group is selling something a little different: a gateway to the world of Korean food, hospitality and culture.
The South Korean conglomerate, whose Bibigo logo already rides along PGA Tour broadcasts on the polos of players like Sungjae Im and Si Woo Kim, is using its title-sponsored event at TPC Craig Ranch outside Dallas as a laboratory for K-culture exports to the American market.
Alongside Korean fried chicken, mandu dumplings and DJ-fronted hospitality areas, CJ is introducing jari, a premium Korean distilled spirits brand, as part of a broader effort to test whether America’s growing appetite for Korean food can translate into higher-margin lifestyle categories like premium alcohol.
Dr. Gregory Yep, CEO of CJ Foods, said the company views the tournament as far more than a traditional sponsorship activation, describing the Byron Nelson as “really a testing ground for us” as CJ evaluates how American consumers respond to premium Korean spirits, mixology concepts and food pairings in an experiential setting.
“We have been thinking about this over the past three years and really think that now is the time to tell the U.S. the jari story,” Yep said.
Following a series of pop-up events and market validation tests in New York City, jari officially made its U.S. consumer debut this week at the Byron Nelson, where CJ is using hospitality tents, chef-driven menus and cocktail activations to gauge whether Korean alcohol can ride the same cultural tailwinds that helped propel K-food into the American mainstream.
While soju itself is already well established in the U.S. market, Yep said jari is aimed at a more premium consumer.
“This is more of a premium soju,” Yep said. “It has different taste qualities, it’s aged, and it gives a different lift of an alcohol experience.”
CJ’s ambitions at the Byron Nelson extend well beyond simply giving fans a taste of their offerings so they pick some out on their next visit to the supermarket. This year’s edition of the tourney enlisted a trio of high-profile chefs—including Michelin two-star Atomix chef Junghyun Park, Iron Chef America winner Beau MacMillan and Culinary Class Wars champion Yong-wook Yoo—to flex their chops with CJ’s product and help push Korean flavors deeper into the American mainstream.
Kimchi nachos, Korean-style crunchy glazed chicken, gochujang pork tacos and kimchi fried rice all made appearances around the course as CJ experimented with how Korean sauces, spices and fermented flavors resonate with golf fans.
Yep believes that east-meets-west mashups represent the next frontier of K-food’s expansion in the U.S., pointing to products like tteokbokki, Korean fried chicken, K-ramen and kimchi as categories with significant runway ahead.
“Sporting events bring people together, the food brings people together even more and then when you combine that together, a consumer in Texas, in the Frisco/McKinney area, really experiences Korean food in a fun format,” Yep said.
“A lot of folks there yesterday weren’t even paying attention to golf or really don’t follow golf, but they were there for the food and the experience.”
As Korean flavors increasingly collide with familiar American staples—from gochujang ranch and spicy mayo mashups to kimchi-topped tacos and nachos—the CJ Cup Byron Nelson increasingly functions as a real-time consumer focus group helping shape which Korean-inspired products eventually land in grocery aisles, restaurant menus and cocktail bars across America.
In the process, the tournament has evolved into a golf event where concession-stand flavor pairings compete for attention alongside the pairings dueling it out on the fairways.