ZOZO Championship PGA DFS Stats Preview: Course Fits, GPP Picks, and Values

The PGA TOUR will head to Japan this week for just the third time in history to play the ZOZO Championship at Narashino Country Club. The event was played at the course in 2019 but had to move to Las Vegas in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic before returning to Narashino in 2021.

Narashino Country Club is a par 70 measuring 7,079 yards and features Bentgrass greens. The course has a unique design with five par 3s and three par 5s.

The ZOZO Championship is a no-cut event and will feature 78 golfers. The field is very strong this week, with a handful of PGA TOUR stars making the long trip to Japan. Those golfers include Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Hideki Matsuyama, Tommy Fleetwood, Tom Kim, Rickie Fowler, Viktor Hovland, Cameron Young, Tyrrell Hatton, Corey Conners and Sahith Theegala.

For contests on DraftKings, I will be breaking down the key stats (past 24 rounds) and selecting golfers from different price tiers to provide flexibility for a DFS lineup.

And if you missed it, we added two new metrics in our models — Perfect% and SimLeverage. You can find an explainer on those metrics here.

The cliff notes version is that you can use SimLeverage to quickly find leverage plays in tournaments, while Perfect% is excellent for finding the best price-considered plays for cash games.

For large-field tournaments, you can utilize our Lineup Optimizer to effortlessly create up to 150 lineups or use our Lineup Builder if you like to hand-build your lineups.

This analysis may reference Strokes Gained, a set of proprietary metrics generated by the PGA TOUR using millions of data points to calculate how many shots, on average, it takes a player to get the ball in the hole from every distance and situation.

Strokes Gained is now available in the FantasyLabs PGA Models.

Strokes Gained: Approach

Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club isn’t a very long course. It is a positional track in which finding the right spots to land the golf ball will create birdie opportunities. With the two winners at the course being Tiger Woods and Hideki Matsuyama, it’s quite clear that accuracy with the irons will be crucial this week.

High-end target: Xander Schauffele— $10,800 (5th Strokes Gained: Approach)
Mid-range target: Mito Pereira— $8,300 (8th Strokes Gained: Approach)
Value target: Mark Hubbard— $7,700 (2nd Strokes Gained: Approach)

Good Drives Gained

Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club is a tree-lined golf course that is pretty tight off the tee. In 2019, we saw Tiger Woods win the event by keeping the ball in the fairway and intelligently plotting along the golf course.

Last year, hitting fairways was extremely difficult over the weekend. The course can’t be overpowered, and good drivers of the golf ball should have the advantage.

Hideki Matsuyama gained 10.1 strokes in this category last year.

High-end target: Collin Morikawa $10,200 (2nd Good Drives Gained)
Mid-range target: Mito Pereira— $8,300 (12th Good Drives Gained)
Value target: Troy Merritt— $7,100 (4th Good Drives Gained)

SG: Putting (Bentgrass)

An interesting aspect of the course is its double greens. The course has two greens on each hole to enable golfers to use the course year-round, as different seasons require different grass types.

The green complexes themselves are quite tricky, and good Bentgrass putters should have an advantage.

High-end target: Viktor Hovland— $9,500 (5th SG: Putting (Bentgrass)
Mid-range target: Keegan Bradley— $8,900 (11th SG: Putting (Bentgrass)
Value target: Beau Hossler— $6,700 (2nd SG: Putting (Bentgrass)

Strokes Gained: Par 3

With five par 3s on the course, it is even more important than usual for golfers to play them efficiently.

High-end target: Tom Kim— $9,700 (1st Strokes Gained: Par 3)
Mid-range target: Mito Pereira— $8,300 (6th Strokes Gained: Par 3)
Value target: Stephen Jaeger— $7,100 (2nd Strokes Gained: Par 3)

Greens in Regulation: Gained

Last year, Narashino Country Club played very difficult. Hitting greens in regulation was incredibly beneficial, and Matsuyama did so consistently. He gained 15 strokes on the field in the category, which was six strokes better than the next best.

High-end target: Xander Schauffele— $10,800 (1st Greens in Regulation: Gained)
Mid-range target: Emiliano Grillo— $7,700 (5th Greens in Regulation: Gained)
Value target: Adam Long— $6,900— (2nd Greens in Regulation: Gained)

Get a 100% Deposit Match up to $250!

Your deposit will be fully matched

New users only

GET $250 FREE