Golf
Zozo Championship preview: Ryo to make it His week
We’re staying with the PGA Tour this week, but leaving North America for a rare international trip as the players head over to Japan for the Zozo Championship.
The 5,513-mile trip from Las Vegas to Narashino has deterred a few of the world’s top players, but world number two Xander Schauffele heads a field largely made up of American and Japanese players.
We’re siding with one of each in our selections as we aim to get back on track after a lacklustre week at the Shriners Children’s Open, with one missed cut and Rickie Fowler putting in a decent performance to finish T23.
Sahith Theegala 14/1
Our first selection comes in the form of an American, Sahith Theegala. One of the biggest names on show here, the current world number 13 will be hoping to make a point and land a second career victory this week.
He heads to Japan as a 14/1-shot, fifth in the market behind Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im. All of those will be expecting to trouble the top of the leaderboard, but Theegala could be the standout value play.
The Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club offers up a 7079-yard par 70 which tests accuracy and short game, with the yardage somewhat deceiving due to the additional par 3. There are some seriously long holes in play here, many of which offer tree-lined fairways, so this will be a tough test.
Theegala’s approach play will be pivotal to his success here and he is one of the best in the business from the fairway, ranking seventh in the world for his success rate when going for the green. Combine that with being the 36th-best putter on the Tour and he comes out ninth for total strokes gained, making him a serious contender here.
His course form is certainly worth noting as well. A 19th-place finish on his first outing here was impressive, and he improved on that last year to finish fifth on 12-under-par after shooting a 71 on the opening day.
His recent form here, combined with seven finishes inside the 7 places available with William Hill this season, make him seem a fairly safe bet to be in and around the top of the leaderboard, but he’ll only have his sights set on victory.
Ryo Hisatsune 66/1
Our hometown hero angle sees us side with Japanese rising star Ryo Hisatsune. “Hometown Hero”, might be a slight stretch as he is actually from a town 700km west of Narashino, but the Japanese fans will still no doubt be rooting for him.
At 66/1 he won’t be teeing it up as one of the favourites for the tournament, but he is a very skilled player who, at just 22 years of age, has already shown he has what it takes to get a victory over the line at the top level.
That instance came at last year’s Open de France where he picked up his first and only professional victory. Since then, he has continued to put his name in the hat in notable tournaments, not least this year’s PGA Championship where he finished a very respectable 18th.
Formerly a DP World Tour mainstay, Hisatsune has played most of this season on the PGA Tour, with 24 starts under his belt in 2024. It hasn’t been a blistering first season on the Tour, but his highlight came just three starts ago when he finished T3 at the Wyndham Championship.
His approach play was key to that performance and has been his main asset this year, ranking 47th in the world for strokes gained approaching the green, and 21st for his greens in regulation percentage. He is particularly useful with the long irons, ranking 10th for approaches from 225-250 yards, which should come in very handy here.
Finishing in the 7 places available with William Hill would likely be viewed as a successful outing for the 22-year-old and would certainly please the home crowd, as well as return nicely given his inflated price. He averages his best scores in the final round of tournaments so, should he make it to the weekend, he may just fancy his chances of sneaking a spot around the top of the leaderboard on Sunday.
