In a few hours, the sixth edition of the ZOZO Championship kicks off, a reduced field PGA Tour tournament that is a regular in the autumn. It will be the fifth time it takes place at the Narashino Country Club (Inzai, Chiba Prefecture, Japan), as in 2020 it was played in the United States due to the pandemic.
A player already highlighted on this site, Justin Thomas, is drawing attention and even intrigue, given that he hasn’t won since the 2022 PGA. However, we cannot overlook the stellar presence of the world’s second-best player, according to the rankings, Xander Schauffele. The world ranking places him in such a position for a reason, evidently, only behind the relentless Scottie Scheffler. But let’s remember just two facts. One much more within reach: he is the recent winner of two Majors this year, the PGA and the Open. And another that goes more unnoticed: Schauffele missed his last cut two and a half years ago, at the 2022 Masters.
Well, Schauffele has something of a thorn in his side with the ZOZO. He has played all five editions held to date and not only has he never won it, but he doesn’t even have a top-three or top-five finish. In fact, his best result is the ninth place he achieved in 2022, a meagre haul for a player of his calibre. Probably for this reason, he came into this year (land of his maternal grandparents; his mother was born in Taiwan but grew up in Japan) well-prepared. “On this course, there are six holes where you have to be happy if you walk away with a par. If you manage that, then you can give yourself good opportunities.”
Which holes at the Narashino Country Club (*) is the Californian referring to? He clarified this himself in his pre-tournament media appearance. They are holes 4, 9, 11, 12, and 17, which are the four longest par 4s on the course, as well as hole 5, a long par 3 well-defended with water. Indeed, if one reviews the history of the four editions of the ZOZO played on this course, hole 4, for example, always ends up as the most difficult on the course. And all of them, except in very rare cases, have ended up being played with an average score above PAR.
Xander Schauffele‘s average score in the 16 competition rounds he has already completed on this course is 68.93 (par 70), which isn’t bad, but interestingly his total on those six mentioned holes is +15, no less.
And since we’re talking about the Narashino Country Club, a complex located about forty kilometres northeast of Tokyo in a straight line, let’s say that at least two players won on this course the first time they encountered it. They came, they saw, they conquered. One is Tiger Woods, who won the first edition of the ZOZO Championship in 2019. And the other is Severiano Ballesteros, who won the Japan Open in 1977 at Narashino and in the only time in history that this course hosted this tournament. Seve became that year the first non-Asian player to win a Japan Open, which has been played since 1927, and of course, the first European (he would also win it in 1978, by the way). To this day, he remains the only European to have won it. In the end, we always end up talking about the same people, for a reason.
(*) The course played in the ZOZO Championship is a hybrid of the two courses at the Narashino Country Club, the King course and the Queen course. It has always been the same in all editions, including this week’s, and is a par 70 with three par 5s and five par 3s.
