This weekend, the PGA Tour heads to Asia for the Zozo Championship, an event co-sanctioned by the PGA and the Japan Golf Tour.
The relatively large purse on offer this week in Japan has attracted a stellar lineup with some big names set to play their first solo event since the FedEx Cup playoffs in August and September.
The tournament is held at Narashino Golf Club in Tokyo and has only been on the circuit for the past five years. However, it has quickly gained a reputation for being one of the most stellar tournaments on the circuit given that only the top 60 available PGA Tour players (based on last season's FedEx Cup standings) are invited to play.
Some big names have won the event over the years, with Collin Morikawa coming out on top in 2023 with a score of -14 and local hero, Hideki Matsuyama triumphing in 2021 with a score of -15. Both men won by six and five strokes respectively so the course isn't as easy as their winning scores suggest.
Ahead of the first tee times in the early hours of Thursday morning, check out our Zozo Championship betting tips below.
Zozo Championship betting tips
Collin Morikawa (Eight places) – 6/1
Collin Morikawa is the reigning champion at the Zozo Championship and for our money, he is the most likely player to win this week. While that may seem like a bold shout with Xander Schaufelle in the field, this is a course that is very well suited to Morikawa as demonstrated by his huge win last year at Narashino Golf Club.
Morikawa has also been getting steadily better throughout 2024. In his last outing at the Presidents Cup, he won four of his five matches while in his last solo appearance, he finished second to Scottie Scheffler at the Tour Championship. On strokeplay, he would have won the event but just had too much ground to make up on Scheffler.
Over the past two editions of the Zozo Championship, the winner of the event has ranked sixth and second respectively for putting average and Morikawa ranks fourth on the PGA Tour this season in this metric.
Sungjae Im (Eight places) – 12/1
Sungjae Im may only be 26 years old but he is one of the most experienced players in the field this week when it comes to knowledge of the Japan Tour and courses like Narashino Golf Club. Im has played this tournament on three occasions throughout his career and his highest finish is third in 2019 when Tiger Woods famously won.
Im has followed that up with two other respectable finishes here (12th and 29th) and should therefore at least be in contention to cover the E/W.
Like Morikawa, Im has improved as the year has gone on and has three top-eleven finishes in his last five appearances. He is trending upwards and will be very excited about teeing it up in Japan on Thursday.
Jhonattan Vegas (Eight places) – 45/1
Jhonattan Vegas is our left-field shout for this week but the Venezuelan certainly has the game to excel around Narashino Golf Club. All of the players that have won this competition since 2019 have ranked inside the top five for greens in regulation percentage which tells us that iron play is key at this golf course.
When it comes to iron play, there haven't been many better players than Vegas on the PGA Tour this year which makes 45/ a very appealing price. Over the past 12 months, he ranks third for the season for greens in regulation percentage which puts him in a strong place coming into this tournament.
Zozo Championship singles
- Collin Morikawa E/W (Eight places) – 6/1 @ Betfred
- Sungjae Im E/W (Eight places) – 12/1 @ Betfred
- Jhonattan Vegas E/W (Eight places)– 45/1 @ Betfred
Andy is tipster who has been calling Golf tournaments for several years across many different platforms. He has covered all tournaments from the Asian Tour to the Masters.
