ZOZO Championship 2021
Stats, Trends & Things You Don't Need To Know
Course: Accordia Golf Narashino CC
Par 70 - 7,041 Yards
Bentgrass Greens
2019 Feels So Far Away
It feels like it’s been a decade since we were at Narashino CC for the 2019 ZOZO Championship. Tiger Woods captured his 82nd victory, tying him for the most PGA TOUR victories of all-time. Let me refresh your memory on the top of the leaderboard that week. (Highlighted are the golfers playing this week, via Holy Grail Tool)
4-4-3-4-3-5-3-4-4 | 4-4-4-3-5-4-3-4-5
This course is a Par-70 but it features (5) Par-3s and only (3) Par-5s. That’s fairly unique on the PGA TOUR, so let’s take a look at the best Par 3 players in the field. (Via Custom Model Tool)
Is Tommy Fleetwood Good?
I honestly don’t know anymore. His last Top 5 in a stroke play event on TOUR was the Honda Classic … in 2020. That was 19 months ago. It seems like that event was a real inflection point for him.
Start of Career to 2020 Honda: +0.99 ball-striking, +1.15 total (per round)
Since 2020 Honda: -0.18 ball-striking, +0.11 total (per round)
That’s a full shot worse, per round, since that event.
Back To Basics
With only one year of data for this event, in Japan, I’m creating a very basic model this week. I’ll be leaning on the stats that are most strongly correlated to fantasy points. Here’s a rough model for 33% of weights on SGTOT, 34% on birdie or better % and 33% on Par-3 Scoring — using the last 50 rounds.
Charley Hoffman
Collin Morikawa
Joaquin Niemann
Maverick McNealy
Alex Noren
Slate Breakers?
This is a field of only 78 golfers with plenty of exemptions for the Japan Tour. Here’s a quick refreshed on a few of the most interesting names:
Takumi Kanaya - Spent 55 weeks at the #1 amateur in the world. For reference, that’s the second longest stint, tied with Patrick Cantlay and five weeks behind Jon Rahm. Plays on the Japan Tour, hasn’t finished outside the Top 16 in any of his last seven starts.
Shugo Imahira - #136 in World Rankings, ahead of JT Poston, Hudson Swafford and Henrik Norlander. Won the Fujisankei Classic in September. Played two Majors in 2020 (US Open and Masters), made the cut in both.
Shaun Norris - Late add to the field after Paul Casey W/D. Won on the Japan Tour last week in a field strength of 28. That’s a stronger field than the Barbasol Championship and equal to the Puerto Rico Open. Has two wins in his last 11 Japan Tour starts.
Can You Read? Or Do You Prefer To?
I’m trying out something new, by offering some written content on RickRunGood.com. My goal is to create a supplement to the audio/video content that I produce. If you enjoy it, please let me know and I’ll continue. You can find the current pieces here:
Link: https://bit.ly/3G0Umag
More on IG!
Are you following me on Instagram? If not, you should be. I’m starting to post a lot more content over there including some behind-the-scenes stuff! I’ll do some giveaways and exclusive stuff over there in coming weeks. Check it out!
KNOW THE SCHEDULE!
This event is in Japan, that’s 13 hours ahead of the East Coast in the United Stated. Lineups lock at 7:30pm ET! Don’t leave your dummy lineups in!
Also, that means that the Jock MKT Power Hour is tonight (Tuesday) at 8:15pm ET instead of Wednesday. The ZOZO Championship Live Chat will remain at the same time, Wednesday 3pm ET. Links Below.
Jock MKT Power Hour (Tues, 8:15pm ET)
ZOZO Championship Live Chat (Wednesday, 3:00pm ET)
Good luck, talk soon
Rick