The PGA Tour heads to Chiba, Japan, for the fourth event of the 2022 fall schedule, the Zozo Championship. All eyes are going to be on Hideki Matsuyama this week, not just because he’s the native son but also because he’s the defending champion of this event.
Matsuyama is going to have plenty of company though, because the Zozo championship preview shows this is the most stacked field of any of the tournaments to date.
Matsuyama for the Repeat?
The crowd will definitely be behind Matsuyama this week, as the Kochi Japan native tees it up a short jump from his home. Matsuyama put on a show at last year’s Zozo Championship, shooting -15 to beat out Brendan Steele and Cameron Tringale by five strokes.
Despite being the defending champion, Matsuyama is not the favorite this weekend coming in at +1400 Golf odds. He did win twice last season, also taking home the Sony Open in Hawaii in January, but did no better than third place at the AT&T Byron Nelson the rest of the season.
So far in the fall portion of the Tour schedule has a T25 at the Fortinet Championship. He was also just 1-3-1 for the International Team in the Presidents Cup, but still has value as a runner-up finisher to Tiger Woods the only other time this event was held at the Narashino CC in 2019. The tournament was moved to Sherwood, CA in 2020 due to COVID travel restrictions.
Some Fall Tour Debuts This Weekend
The favorite in the Zozo Championship preview this weekend is Xander Schauffele (+650), making his 2022/23 Tour debut. Schauffele won three tournaments last season and really got hot towards the end of the year, taking the Travelers Championship and Genesis Scottish Open in back-to-back entries and finishing third at the BMW Championship and fourth at the Tour Championship.
While it’s Schauffele’s first TOUR event of the year, he hasn’t been idle while going 3-1 as part of the winning Presidents Cup team. Fellow Presidents Cup teammate Collin Morikawa (+1400) makes his fall tour debut this weekend as well after going 2-1 at Quail Hollow. Morikawa was winless for the first time in his three-year professional career last season, so he wants to get off on the right track here.
Another Presidents Cup winner, Cameron Young (+1900), also tees it up for the first time on the fall tour this weekend. He didn’t get a victory last season, but had one of the more impressive rookie debuts in recent memory, with five runner-ups and two third-place finishes. Young went from 134th in the OWGR to inside the top 15 over the course of last year, so he’s poised for big things in 2022/23.
The Tom Kim Rock Show Rolls On
Sure, a Patrick Cantlay triple-bogey on the 72nd hole had something to do with it, but Tom Kim (+1600)was still impressive in his Shriners Childrens Open win last weekend. The 20-year-old has won two of his last four events, and also was one of the stars of the Presidents Cup in Quail Hollow.
Kim’s win last weekend at Summerlin beat Tiger Woods by six months for the second youngest to get their second Tour victory. Ralph Guidahl holds on to the record, as he was a month younger than Kim when taking home the 1932 Arizona Open for his second victory.
The Shriners Childrens Open was the first Tour event for Kim having caddie Joe Skovron on his bag, and just the second time overall following the Presidents Cup. It’s pretty scary that those two are just figuring out their chemistry and nuances and could be even more dominant moving forward.
Conclusion
10 of the 12 players from the International Team at the Presidents Cup are in this field, as are three of the victorious Americans, so there are a lot of top-notch options in the Zozo Championship preview. Few would argue if you take Matsuyama to defend his title or Schauffele to continue his hot stretch at the end of last year.
Sungjae Im has a value at +1200, and Morikawa finished seventh here last year, so he has experience playing the event. Mackenzie Hughes even has a nice ROI at +4200, considering he was fourth here last year and already has a 2022/23 win at the Sanderson Championship.
The best way to go in this spot is to ride the rockstar Tom Kim though. If he’s still getting comfortable with his new caddie and already has a solid Presidents Cup and a Shriners Childrens Open victory, then the sky is the limit.
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