19th Hole
Vincenzi’s ZOZO Championship betting preview: Former Masters champ set for big week in Tokyo
The PGA TOUR will head to Japan this week for just the fourth time in history to play the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP at Narashino Country Club. The event was played at the course in 2019 but had to move to Las Vegas in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic before returning to Narashino in 2021 and 2022.
Narashino Country Club is a par 70 measuring 7,079 yards and features Bentgrass greens. The course has a unique design with five par 3s and three par 5s.
The ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP is a no-cut event that features 78 golfers that includes 60 available PGA TOUR players from the 2022-2023 FedEx Cup Points list, nine special exemptions and nine Japan Golf Tour players. 16 of the top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking will be in attendance including Xander Schauffele, Cameron Young, Min Woo Lee, Keegan Bradley, Collin Morikawa, Sungjae Im, Hideki Matsuyama and Rickie Fowler.
Past Winners at Narashino Country Club
- 2022: Keegan Bradley (-15)
- 2021: Hideki Matsuyama (-15)
- 2019: Tiger Woods (-19)
Let’s take a look at several key metrics for Narashino Country Club to determine which golfers boast top marks in each category over their last 24 rounds.
Strokes Gained: Approach
Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club isn’t a very long course. It is a positional track and finding the right spots to land the golf ball will create birdie opportunities. With the three winners at the course being Tiger Woods, Hideki Matsuyama and Keegan Bradley, it’s quite clear that accuracy with the irons will be crucial this week.
Total Strokes Gained: Approach in past 24 rounds:
- Sam Ryder (+24.8)
- Hideki Matsuyama (+23.2)
- Xander Schauffele (+21.4)
- Collin Morikawa (+19.9)
- Eric Cole (+18.3)
Strokes Gained: Off the Tee
Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club is a tree-lined golf course that is pretty tight off the tee. In 2019, we saw Tiger Woods win the event by keeping the ball in the fairway and intelligently plotting along the golf course.
In 2021 and 2022, hitting fairways was extremely difficult over the weekend. The course can’t be overpowered, and good drivers of the golf ball should have the advantage.
However, long hitters have also fared well at the course. I believe a well rounded off the tee game is required this week.
Total Strokes Gained: Off the Tee in past 24 rounds:
- M.J. Daffue (+22.1)
- Garrick Higgo (+18.0)
- Kevin Yu (+17.9)
- Tyler Duncan (+17.8)
- Min Woo Lee (+17.1)
SG: Putting (Bentgrass)
An interesting aspect of the course is its double greens. The course has two greens on each hole to enable golfers to use the course year-round as different seasons require different grass types.
The green complexes themselves are quite tricky, and good Bentgrass putters should have an advantage.
SG: Putting (Bentgrass) past 24 rounds:
- Maverick McNealy (+21.4)
- Eric Cole (+18.9)
- Dylan Wu (+18.1)
- Justin Lower (+17.7)
- Keegan Bradley (+16.7)
Strokes Gained: Par 3
With five par 3s on the course, it is even more important than usual for golfers to play them efficiently.
Total SG: Par 3 in past 24 rounds:
- Eric Cole (+22.0)
- Mark Hubbard (+14.5)
- Andrew Putnam (+11.2)
- Keegan Bradley (+11.2)
- Carson Young (+9.7)
Greens in Regulation: Gained
Narashino Country Club can play very difficult. Hitting greens in regulation will be incredibly beneficial, and in 2021 Matsuyama did so consistently. He gained 15 strokes on the field in the category, which was six strokes better than the next best. Last year, Bradley gained 6.3 strokes.
Greens In Regulation: Gained in past 24 rounds:
- Collin Morikawa (+30.9)
- Andrew Putnam (+26.0)
- Sam Ryder (+24.3)
- Martin Laird (+23.8)
- Luke List (+23.7)
Statistical Model
Below, I’ve reported overall model rankings using a combination of the five key statistical categories previously discussed.
These rankings are comprised of SG:APP (28%) Good Drives Gained: (23%), Greens in Regulation: Gained (20%), SG: Par 3 (14.5%), SG: Putting (Bentgrass) (14.5%).
- Collin Morikawa (+1100)
- Xander Schauffele (+700)
- Callum Tarren (+7500)
- Adam Schenk (+4500)
- Adam Svensson (+4500)
- J.J. Spaun (+5000)
- Keegan Bradley (+2500)
- Hideki Matsuyama (+1800)
- Vincent Norrman (+4500)
- Eric Cole (+3000)
ZOZO Championship Best Bets
Sungjae Im +2000 (FanDuel)
Sungjae Im has been in Asia over the past few weeks sharpening his game. The 25-year-old avoided military service by winning a silver medal at the Asian Games a few weeks ago and followed it up with a tie for 2nd place finish at the Genesis Championship in South Korea last week. The fact that Im is acclimated to Asia over the past few weeks should give him a leg up on the players who will be coming over from America.
Sungjae has played some great golf on Zoysia fairways throughout his career. He has a runner-up finish at East Lake Golf Club which features the surface as well as 12th and 6th place finishes at TPC Southwind (St. Jude). The South Korean has also showed a fondess of Narashino CC and boasts a 3rd place finish here in 2019 to go along with a 29th last year.
He doesn’t quite have the pedigree of Schauffele and Morikawa who sit atop the odds board this week, but I believe his chances to win the event are comparable at double the price. He’s clearly in good form at the moment and this will be a good chance for Im to nab his first PGA Tour victory since 2021.
Adam Scott +2500 (BetRivers)
Adam Scott also fits the mold of a player who’s been playing in Asia recently and is acclimated to the conditions. Scott played in last week’s Japan Open, shooting 73-73 and missing the cut on the number on an incredibly difficult golf course. He took the bullet train to Tokyo last night and should be ready to go for the ZOZO Championship.
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Throughout his career, the Australian has been a global golfer, winning all over the world. He’s won in Qatar, Beijing, China and in Singapore (by seven strokes) so he should have no problem playing well in Tokyo this week. Scott is an experienced golfer who knows how to manage a fairly difficult golf course similar to the three previous winners at the course.
Scott didn’t have his best season in 2023, missing the FedEx Cup playoffs, but finished the season strong with a 7th place result at the Wyndham Championship. He’ll have a chance to start his new season with a bang at Narashino CC.
Cameron Champ +8000 (FanDuel)
Cameron Champ is the type of player that shows form before winning. Before his most recent victory at the 2021 3M Open, he finished 11th the week prior at the John Deere Classic. Before his win at the Fortinet Championship in 2019, he finished 28th the week prior at the Sanderson Farms Championship, gaining 6.8 strokes off the tee. Similarly, he gained 6.4 strokes off the tee at the Fortinet in 2018 before winning the Sanderson Farms Championship the following week.
In his last two starts, Champ has finished 9th and 18th, which I believe is foreshadowing another victory in the near future.
TPC Summerlin is a course that typically favors accuracy over distance, but the 28-year-old managed to hang around anyway after a torrid start. Although Narashino CC is tight off the tee, bombers have fared very well at the course and driving distance has proven to be important statistically.
Champ had some success at the course last year when he finished 8th, only four shots behind the winner Keegan Bradley. He got into contention by shooting four rounds in the 60’s (including a Saturday 64) despite being in horrific form at the time. Cam missed the cut in three starts before the ZOZO as well as the three starts after.
There are some elite players at the top of the betting board this week, but at long odds, Champ has proven to be a prolific winner and someone I trust to finish strong if he finds himself in the mix on Sunday.
Keita Nakajima +12o00 (FanDuel)
Keita Nakajima turned professional last October, but prior to that, his 87 total weeks as the No. 1-ranked men’s amateur golfer in the world set a record, topping Jon Rahm’s former 60-week cumulative reign. After Nakajima turned pro, he was replaced by Ludvig Aberg atop the WAGR, and we’ve seen how quickly he’s developed into one of the world’s best young players.
Nakajima has a fantastic golf pedigree, but he’s also been playing great golf in Asia over the past few months. He has three top-8 finishes in his last four starts, as well as a win at the Yokohama Minato Championship back in August.
The 23-year-old from Japan has also had success at Narashino CC. He finished in a tie for 12th last year thanks to a ridiculous second round 63 and finished in a tie for 28th in 2021 when he teed it up as an amateur in a very strong field.
At long odds, it’s worth taking a shot on a player who could turn out to be the best Japanese golfer since Hideki Matsuyama on a course he will be comfortable on.
19th Hole
‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish
An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.
However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.
Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.
Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”
Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish
— Jenny Shin (@JennyShin_LPGA) August 3, 2025
Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.
Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.
Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.
Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.
Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.
Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.
Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.
“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course. Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”
According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.
“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”
Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.
Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.
Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.
Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.
The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.
Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”
“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”
Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.
However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.
“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”
Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.
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