Watching the Zozo Championship in Japan this week is a trip down memory lane as it was at the Narashino Country Club three years ago that Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer of his time (and arguably of all time), scored his 82nd and probably final PGA Tour victory.
That number equalled Sam Snead’s record and unless Tiger has one more miracle for us it is a shame that, after the fallout from his car losing an argument with a tree and years of surgery on various parts of his anatomy, he looks like stopping there. But, as it’s Tiger, you just never know …
That three-shot victory over Japan’s favourite son Hideki Matsuyama came in the inaugural Zozo - if you’re wondering, it’s the brand name of a Japanese clothing giant - and as the 2020 edition was a Covid victim, punters have only the 2019 and 2021 Zozo for form guidance.
Just as Jon Rahm was always going to be the story in the Open de Espana, so it is with Matsuyama in front of his adoring fans in the PGA Tour’s sole venture into Japan. The pressure on Matsuyama will be marginally less because, unlike Spain, the local hero will be facing top-line opposition, headed by world No.5 Xander Schauffele and No.9 Collin Morikawa, so defeat will be far more excusable.
It is no secret that the Saudi-backed LIV Golf operation has made persistent overtures to Matsuyama who is reported to have turned down a signing-on fee even more eye-popping than the inducements offered to Open champion Cammie Smith and former world No.1 Dustin Johnson. Sums of $300m and higher have been bandied about such is the value of the 2021 Masters champion to LIV’s ambitions in Asia.
Nobody would be surprised if Matsuyama, once he has got the defence of his Zozo title out of the way - he eagled the last for a runaway victory last year - announces a change of heart. At 30 he still has plenty of great golf in him and is not obviously in decline, as many of the early defectors are.
He has already successfully defended a trophy before - back-to-back victories in Phoenix in 2016/17 - but a patchy 2022 in which he had to miss important tournaments because of neck and wrist problems suggests he will be vulnerable in what is a big ask.
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There will plenty who fancy their chances of dethroning him, not least the spectacular 20-year-old Tom Kim, now twice a winner in his last four PGA starts after holding his nerve better than Patrick Cantlay in a fabulous duel in Las Vegas.
Between the Wyndham and Shriners triumphs the boy wonder made a lot of noise in an impressive Presidents Cup debut. The golf-mad Japanese will take the baby-faced South Korean to their hearts and his flamboyant presence should take some of the media heat off Matsuyama.
The fans already know Schauffele from the 2020 Olympics as the American ace won gold at Kasumigaseki, a course not too far from Narashino. Only 28th on this week’s course last year, this week’s 8/1 favourite finished fourth at the Tour Championship and won three out of four at the Presidents Cup on his two latest outings. Xander will surely be in the mix again.
So too fellow Californian Morikawa, another with a local tie-in as he is of Chinese-Japanese descent. Seventh at Narashino last year, expect the 2021 Open champion to improve considerably on a year that owes him a W.
Since his DP World Tour Championship triumph 11 months ago and with it the Race To Dubai honours, the first American to do so, Morikawa has produced a number of top-five finishes but under the radar as far as making the headlines. He can change all that in Japan.
Sungjae Im, third to Tiger in the 2019 Zozo and in terrific form in recent months, wasn’t disgraced in seventh place at the Shriners on Sunday, and Si Woo Kim, just a shot behind Im, complete a ferocious Korean challenge alongside new kid on the block Tom.
Viktor Hovland, Tyrrell Hatton, Sepp Straka and Tommy Fleetwood (disappointing last week) head the European challenge but I prefer Keegan Bradley, seventh and 13th on previous visits, and Sanderson Farms winner Mackenzie Hughes, fourth last year, a Canadian with supreme around-the-green skills.
It’s a short field of 78, there’s no cut so you’ll get four rounds for your money, a monster $11m prize fund to be won on a well-established 7079-yard par 70 parkland course and after a bit of rain on Thursday, players can expect a cloudy but dry week with temperatures in the high 70s.
My five bets all have course form - Matsuyama 31 under par in finishing first and second, Morikawa seventh last year, Im third in 2019, Hughes fourth a year ago and Bradley, seventh and 13th. But beware the two debutants, Tom Kim and Cameron Young, you’ll be hearing from them for quite a while.
Zozo Championship golf betting tips 2022
- 2pts each-way Collin Morikawa @ 14/1
- 1pt each-way Sungjae Im @ 12/1
- 1pt each-way Hideki Matsuyama @ 14/1
- 1pt each-way Mackenzie Hughes @ 70/1
- 1pt each-way Keegan Bradley @ 33/1
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