The 2020 PGA Tour is starting to heat up as the Asian leg got underway last weekend in South Korea. We head to Japan this week for the second leg of the trip, the Zozo Championship, which gets underway on Thursday from the Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club.
We have a full preview and betting tips for the event below!
Zozo Championship Betting Tips
We found a winner at the CJ Cup last weekend as we tipped Justin Thomas to win the tournament at $8 and to finish in the top five at $2.20. Our top selection to win the tournament was Gary Woodland, who finished in T3 place and helped us to another comfortable win as we tipped him to finish in the top 20 at odds of $2.00. Believe it or not, our third selection, Aussie Cameron Smith, also finished T3 as we picked up another top 20 winner at odds of $2.20.
We’ll look to keep the momentum going this week as more of the top players in the world are in action at the Zozo Championship.
The Field
Another prize-pool north of $9,000,000 has attracted an extremely talented field for the Zozo Championship this week. The tournament also serves as the final chance players will have to get a hit out before the all-important WGC event in China next week.
Three of the four major champions from last season will be playing in Gary Woodland, Shane Lowry and Tiger Woods, who will be making just his second start of the season. Woods, who is serving as Presidents Cup team captain this year, will no doubt be hunting the win in Japan but will also be scouting potential players to fill out his squad in November.
The No.2 player in the world, Rory McIlroy, will make his first start since winning the Tour Championship last season, where he was awarded the FedEx Cup and subsequently named golfer of the year by his peers.
A host of other top line players will be teeing it up on Thursday, including Zander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Paul Casey, Adam Scott, Tony Finau, Patrick Reed, Hideki Matsuyama, Tommy Fleetwood, Jason Day and Sergio Garcia.
The Course
The Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club in Chiba, Japan will host the inaugural Zozo Championship. The course measures just over 7,000 yards as a Par 70 and was opened in 1965.
While it’s not the longest course on tour by ant stretch of the imagination, it is still extremely tricky off the tee. The fairways are lined with trees and tricky doglegs, making club selection off the tee of upmost importance.
With their being no data from previous years to go on, it’s hard to get a read on which type of player should play well this weekend. The greens are fairly small by tour standards and offer plenty of slope and undulation. All in all, strong tee-to-green players look to be the play here, while length off the tee wont be super important for us this week.
Tips
After Thomas’ dominant performance at the CJ Cup last week, where he claimed his second title, it’s extremely hard to overlook him this week and we definitely wouldn’t oppose a bet on him to go back to back in Japan. However, we are going to look further down the board for some value this week, most notably in the Englishman Tommy Fleetwood.
Fleetwood shot up the leader board in the final round of the CJ Cup with a -5 to finish T20. The 28-year-old is yet to pick up a win on the PGA Tour but has been close on so many occasions.
Fleetwood was extremely strong in all aspects of golf last season, ranking in the top 20 in four of the six shots gained stats. This should put him in good stead at a completely unfamiliar course.
Tommy Fleetwood to win
$26
Other Tips:
Tommy Fleetwood top 10 - $2.60 at BetEasy
Rory McIlroy to win - $8.50 at BetEasy
Rory McIlroy top 5 - $2.40 at BetEasy
Byeong Hun An top 20 - $2.00 at BetEasy
Kevin Kisner top 20 - $2.60 at BetEasy
