Tee times begin TONIGHT AT 745 ET
FedExCup Fall – Event No. 5
ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP
ACCORDIA GOLF Narashino Country Club
Chiba, Japan
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Mike Glasscott: ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP tips
Win: Hideki Matsuyama (8/1)
Top 10: Beau Hossler (3/1), Will Zalatoris (3/1), Doug Ghim (3/1)
Top 20: Ryo Hisatsune (2/1), Satoshi Kodaira (11/2)
Bet365: Top of the Board
Xander Schauffele (9/2): The Number Two player in the Official World Golf Rankings headlines the field of 78. The winner of HALF of the major championship events in 2024, the PGA Championship victory, and Champion Golfer of the Year will look to add to his collection. A record of 4-1 in the Presidents Cup, plus five consecutive finishes on TOUR in the top 10 makes him the man to beat.
Collin Morikawa (7/1): The previous time the two-time major champion was in the winner’s circle was last year at Narashino Country Club. Nobody made more birdies (24) and only one player had fewer putts. The last time he played his own ball, he won the GROSS division at the TOUR Championship in late August.
Hideki Matsuyama (8/1): The local legend is the only player to hit the podium twice. Posting 16-under-par, he finished second to Woods in 2019. Returning to Japan for the 2021 edition, his total of 15-under-par was good enough for a victory. Making two eagles en route to victory in 2021, he is the only champion to put two double circles on the card. The 2021 Masters champion has two wins on the ledger in 2024 already.
Sungjae Im (12/1): The Korean won in his native land in April for the second time in two years and racked up eight top-10 paydays on TOUR. Cashing T3 on debut in 2019, he’s added T12 and T29 in the last two years.
Sahith Theegala (16/1): Making his third start in Japan, the 2023 Procore Championship winner has already cashed T19 and T5 in two previous visits. Steady throughout the bag, the 26-year-old sits ninth in SG: Total.
Justin Thomas (20/1): The ebbs and flows of 2024 find the two-time PGA Championship winner on a run of five straight without a top-10 payday. Making his first appearance since the inaugural event, he has had plenty of big finishes in the Pacific Rim during his career.
Kurt Kitayama (25/1): Ranking 11th in SG: Tee to Green and ninth in SG: Approach, finding fairways and greens won’t hurt this week.
Others to consider:
Last year, four Japanese players cashed in the top 12, led by Ryo Ishikawa (400/1) at T4. Kensei Hirata (100/1), a 23-year-old, six-time winner in Asia, finished one shot further back on T6 with 22-year-old Ryo Hisatsune (75/1). Sponsor’s exemption Satoshi Kodaira, the 2018 winner at the RBC Heritage over Si Woo Kim (28/1), cashed T12, his second consecutive season inside T16.
Beau Hossler (33/1) will be boom or bust this week, but without a cut, I’ll gamble. Losing a playoff at the Sanderson Farms Championship, he added T11 and T23 and is playing for the fourth week in a row. Never signing for a round above 70 in eight career loops, I’m on board.
Will Zalatoris (35/1) has also been riding the roller coaster following back surgery. Some days are better than others, including T13 at the BMW Championship and T12 at the FedEx St. Jude Championship the week before. Well rested, I don’t think he would have made the trip if he was “iffy”.
Doug Ghim (35/1) is riding high after a career-best solo second in Las Vegas last week. The ball-striker makes his money from tee to green and that’s the formula this week.
Eric Cole (45/1) showed great putters can also contend outside Tokyo. The birdie machine cashed T2 on debut in 2023.
Gary Woodland (50/1) has persevered after brain surgery and continues to stack rounds together. I am not a fan of this number, but, I am following his progress.
Narashino Country Club
The composite course, made of up holes from the Kings and Queens nines, was designed by Japanese legend Kinya Fujita and opened in 1965.
The 34-36 Par-70 layout stretches to 7,079 yards for the third consecutive season.
The front nine consists of three of the five Par-3 holes and just one of the three Par-5 chances.
With 10 Par-4 chances on the card, exactly half will stretch 480 yards or longer. The Par-5 holes stretch 587 and 605 yards before closing with 562 yards on No. 18. Only quality shots are rewarded.
The Par-3 holes feature one challenge over 183 yards and present scoring opportunities.
Rough approaching four inches and greens running upwards of 12 feet will mitigate scoring opportunities.
There have only been 24 tournament totals posted in double figures in four events. Morikawa, on 14-under in 2023, was the only one last year.
Recent PGA TOUR Winners
2023 Season Winners
| Event | Winner |
| Sentry Tournament of Champions | Jon Rahm |
| Sony Open in Hawaii | Si Woo Kim |
| The AMERICAN EXPRESS | Jon Rahm (2) |
| Farmers Insurance Open | Max Homa (2) |
| AT&T Pebble Beach | Justin Rose |
| WM Phoenix Open | Scottie Scheffler |
| The Genesis Invitational | Jon Rahm (3) |
| The Honda Classic | Chris Kirk |
| Arnold Palmer Invitational | Kurt Kitayama (first TOUR win) |
| THE PLAYERS Championship | Scottie Scheffler (2) |
| Valspar Championship | Taylor Moore (first TOUR win) |
| Corales Puntacana | Matt Wallace (first TOUR win) |
| WGC – Dell Technologies MP | Sam Burns |
| Valero Texas Open | Corey Conners |
| Masters | Jon Rahm (4) |
| RBC Heritage | Matt Fitzpatrick |
| Zurich Classic of New Orleans | Davis Riley & Nick Hardy (first TOUR win for each) |
| Mexico Open at Vidanta | Tony Finau (2) |
| Wells Fargo Championship | Wyndham Clark (first TOUR win) |
| AT&T Byron Nelson | Jason Day |
| PGA Championship | Brooks Koepka |
| Charles Schwab Challenge | Emiliano Grillo |
| Memorial | Viktor Hovland |
| RBC Canadian Open | Nick Taylor |
| U.S. Open | Wyndham Clark (2) |
| Travelers Championship | Keegan Bradley (2) |
| Rocket Mortgage Classic | Rickie Fowler |
| John Deere Classic | Sepp Straka |
| Genesis Scottish Open | Rory McIlroy (2) |
| The Open Championship | Brian Harman |
| 3M Open | Lee Hodges (first TOUR win) |
| Wyndham Championship | Lucas Glover |
| FedEx St. Jude Championship | Lucas Glover (2) |
| BMW Championship | Viktor Hovland (2) |
| TOUR Championship | Viktor Hovland (3) |
| Fortinet Championship | Sahith Theegala |
| Sanderson Farms Championship | Luke List |
| Shriners Children’s Open | Tom Kim |
| ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP | Collin Morikawa |
| World Wide Technology | Erik van Rooyen |
| Butterfield Bermuda | Camilo Villegas |
| The RSM Classic | Ludvig Aberg |
2024 Season Winners
| Event | Winner |
| The Sentry | Chris Kirk |
| Sony Open in Hawaii | Grayson Murray |
| The American Express | Nick Dunlap (a) |
| Farmers Insurance Open | Matthieu Pavon (rookie) |
| AT&T Pebble Beach | Wyndham Clark (54 holes) |
| WM Phoenix Open | Nick Taylor |
| The Genesis Invitational | Hideki Matsuyama |
| Mexico Open at Vidanta | Jake Knapp (rookie) |
| Cognizant Classic | Austin Eckroat (first time) |
| Arnold Palmer Invitational | Scottie Scheffler |
| THE PLAYERS Championship | Scottie Scheffler (2) |
| Valspar Championship | Peter Malnati |
| Texas Children’s Houston Open | Stephan Jaeger (first time) |
| Valero Texas Open | Akshay Bhatia |
| 88th Masters Tournament | Scottie Scheffler (3) |
| RBC Heritage | Scottie Scheffler (4) |
| Zurich Classic | Rory McIlroy & Shane Lowry |
| THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson | Taylor Pendrith (first time) |
| Wells Fargo Championship | Rory McIlroy (2) |
| 106th PGA Championship | Xander Schauffele |
| Charles Schwab Challenge | Davis Riley |
| RBC Canadian Open | Robert MacIntyre (first time) |
| The 49th Memorial Tournament | Scottie Scheffler (5) |
| 124th United States Open | Bryson DeChambeau |
| Travelers Championship | Scottie Scheffler (6) |
| Rocket Mortgage Classic | Cam Davis |
| John Deere Classic | Davis Thompson (first time) |
| Genesis Scottish Open | Robert MacIntyre (2) |
| 152nd Open Championship | Xander Schauffele (2) |
| 3M Open | Jhonattan Vegas |
| 2024 Paris Olympics | Scottie Scheffler (7) |
| 3M Open | Jhonattan Vegas |
| Wyndham Championship | Aaron Rai (first time) |
| FedEx St. Jude Championship | Hideki Matsuyama (2) |
| BMW Championship | Keegan Bradley |
| The TOUR Championship | Scottie Scheffler (8) |
| FedEx Cup Fall | |
| Procore Championship | Patton Kizzire |
| Sanderson Farms Championship | Kevin Yu (first time) |
| Black Desert Championship | Matt McCarty (first time) |
| Shriners Children’s Open | JT Poston |
Recent Winners – ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP
Italics – not entered/qualified this week.
| Year | Winner | Notes |
| 2023 | Collin Morikawa (-14) | Only player to post double digits under par; won by six. |
| 2022 | Keegan Bradley (-15) | Won by a shot over Rickie Fowler and Andrew Putnam. |
| 2021 | Hideki Matsuyama (-15) | Won by five shots after winning the Masters earlier in the year. |
| 2020 | Patrick Cantlay | Event was held at Sherwood Country Club in Los Angeles. |
| 2019 | Tiger Woods (-19) | Defeated Matsuyama by three shots to win the inaugural event and set the tournament scoring record. |
ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP
Last week, the Shriners Children’s Open was the site of the first PGA TOUR win in the career of Tiger Woods. This week, the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP was the site of the 82nd, and to this day, final victory for Tiger Woods.
The event was contested for the first time in 2019 at the Narashino Country Club in Chiba, Japan. Woods was victorious, defeating Hideki Matsuyama by three shots, and owns the tournament scoring record on 19-under-par 261.
The fifth edition contested in Japan features defending champion Collin Morikawa and 2021 winner Hideki Matsuyama.
The course record, 61, was last posted by John Huh (not entered) in the 2022 event.
The winning total has been 14-under or lower in every tournament.
The 2022 event is the only tournament to play under par for the week.
Morikawa is the youngest winner at 26. Woods earned his victory at 43, the oldest champion.
Morikawa, a winner by six shots in the 2023 edition, owns the largest margin of victory.
No tournaments have required a playoff to determine the champion.
All four previous winners at Narashino Country Club in Chiba are major champions.
The field of 78 players includes 18 from the Japan Tour. There is no 36-hole cut.
The winner will pocket $1.53 million of the $8.5. million prize pool, plus 500 FedExCup points.
The fifth of eight events in the FedExCup Fall, the TOUR is off next week before stopping in Cabo San Lucas for the World Wide Technology Championship. Read more about the final eight events of the season here.
Glass Houses 