The two-week birdie barrage in Vegas has finally come to an end, and the tour heads Chiba, Japan, for the ZOZO Championship. Hideki Matsuyama’s Masters win made this Japan-based event more mainstream, but this year is a bit of an unfortunate break, with many of the stars deciding to skip this week. Typically, the tour would go from Korea to Japan, and many of the best players would be here. This is the first of many PGA DFS articles, where we’ll outline this week’s tournament, break down all of the important DFS golf stats and get our DraftKings and FanDuel lineups primed for the Thursday tee times.
ZOZO Championship PGA DFS Preview
Now in its third year, the ZOZO returns to Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club after making a one-year stopover in Vegas. There will be 78 players competing in the no-cut event, with 12 golfers coming from the Japanese Tour. The top end of the talent pool is thin but formidable, as Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa are making their second trip to the country in three months (including the Olympics).
Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club Preview
The tree-lined, perfectly manicured course will give players little to complain about this week. With the switch from wide-open desert courses to a narrower build, driving accuracy is bound to come down. Shy of 55% of the field hit the fairways on average in 2019. The rough, however, is not particularly penal as greens were still hit at a 67% clip. For a par 70, 19 under is quite a low score, which is what Tiger Woods shot in 2019. Some of that can be attributed to the fact that there are three par 5’s, along with five par 3’s and 10 par 4’s. Nine of the par 4’s either measure longer than 480 yards or shorter than 400. Only one falls in between: A 425-yarder towards the back end of the round.
Par and Yardage
- Par 70: 7,100 yards
Hole Dispersion
- The Par 3’s: 186- 190- 191, 167 , 174,
- Par 4’s: 400, 363, 500, 395, 486 , 376, 486, 490, 425, 491
- The Par 5’s: 587 , 608, 562
Grass Types & Hazards
- Grass Type: Fairways: Zoysia Greens, Bent
- Average Green Size: TBD
- Water Hazards: TBD
- Bunkers: TBD
- Rough Length: TBD
Sweat Sheet
The 10th hole proved to be one of the easiest last year, as it yielded 16 eagles on the week, the most of any hole. But it presented a bit more risk/reward than the two shorter par 5’s, as those two averaged about 25% of the scoring.
ZOZO PGA DFS Player Preview
Morikawa and Schauffele are formidable and make any field they play in better. Local hero Matsuyama is the next-highest-ranked player, and Paul Casey, Kevin Na, Joaquin Niemann and Will Zalatoris are the other golfers ranked inside the top 30.
ZOZO Championship Statistical Review from 2019
Since there was no strokes gained information from the tournament in Japan, the section below will provide the leaderboard for stats:
Woods, Adam Scott, Gary Woodland and Tommy Fleetwood were the only four golfers to hit at least 65% of greens and 75% of fairways. Hitting greens was key, as the average greens in regulation for those that finished in the top 10 was over 73%, with only Sungjae Im and Byeong Hun An failing to eclipse the 70% mark.
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