ZOZO Championship Picks and Predictions

The PGA Tour goes international this week with the fourth edition of the ZOZO Championship. Only one of the three previous winners will be at this event as Tiger Woods and Patrick Cantlay will not be participating in this tournament, so hometown hero Hideki Matsuyama stands a good chance of defending his title. Matsuyama won this event by five strokes last year, yet he is not the favorite by the golf betting odds. Instead, that honor belongs to Xander Schauffele, as he is the highest-ranked player that will tee off here.

The 2022 ZOZO Championship will run from October 13-16, 2022, from Narashino Country Club in Inzai, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. This is a par 70 course that tips at just over 7,000 yards, so power is not rewarded to the extent we see on longer tracks.

• Hideki Matsuyama to Win the ZOZO Championship (+1200)
• Tyrrell Hatton to Finish in the Top 10 (+250)
• Tom Kim to Beat Collin Morikawa (-110)

HIDEKI MATSUYAMA TO WIN THE EVENT (+1200)

The defending champion will have the crowd at his back for this event. Hideki Matsuyama won’t need much extra motivation though, as he has been lights out at Narashino Country Club in his two previous appearances in this tournament. Matsuyama finished runner-up to Tiger Woods in the inaugural Zozo Championship back in 2019, and he won this event by five strokes in 2021. His worst round on this course is a 68, and he has shot 65 or better four times in his eight trips around this course.

Matsuyama may not have had a strong end to his 2021-22 season, but he has faired very well in early season events. In addition to winning the Zozo Championship last year, he won the Sony Open in Hawaii, and he shot a 65 in his final round at the Fortinet Championship last month.

TYRRELL HATTON TO FINISH TOP 10 (+250)

This is the kind of course that Tyrrell Hatton chews up. Hatton has never teed off at Narashino CC before, but short courses that favor accuracy and precision over power are the types of courses that Hatton has faired well at in his career. This will be his first tournament of the 2022-23 season, and while he only posted three T10 finishes last season, he has a very good chance to finish T10 on Sunday after placing fourth on the PGA Tour in putting last year.

TOM KIM TO FINISH BETTER THAN COLLIN MORIKAWA (-110)

Collin Morikawa finished 22^nd at the first Zozo Championship in 2019, and he secured a T7 finish at this tournament last year. However, Morikawa has not been in good form the last several months with just two T20 finishes in his last 11 tournaments since April. This course does not play to Morikawa’s strengths considering his poor short game and finishing on the green, so he could be primed to have his worst finish yet here.

Meanwhile, young phenom Tom Kim is coming off an incredible performance at the Shriners Children’s Open last week. Kim won the event by three strokes over Patrick Cantlay and Matthew NeSmith, closing out the tournament with a 62 on Saturday and a 66 on Sunday. He doesn’t have a ton of power, but he does an excellent job of finishing around the green and should be able to best Morikawa this week.