Fantasy Golf Predictions
Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2021 ZOZO Championship
2021 ZOZO Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report
Beware the golfer scorned….
Of course, it helps when said golfer is an elite-level talent that has discovered the secret to renewed success in this sport – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Rory McIlroy broke down in tears at the conclusion of the Ryder Cup, so frustrated was he with a lack of form and feel in his game. So, he went away and reminded himself of what made him such a good player in the first place.
And that was class in all departments, which swept the Irishman to a score of -25 – that was enough to see him clinch the CJ Cup title at The Summit club in Las Vegas ahead of local favorite Collin Morikawa.
As one major champion gets his hands on some long-awaited silverware, another will be eyeing a trophy of his own on home soil. Hideki Matsuyama is the star turn this week in Japan, with the PGA TOUR making a rare foray overseas to take in the ZOZO Championship at the Narashino Country Club in Chiba.
The name etched onto the ZOZO trophy is Patrick Cantlay, who won the re-routed edition of this event in 2020 that was played in Sherwood, California. But as a point of order, the real title holder – our man in Japan – is one T. Woods, who blitzed the field at Narashino back in 2019.
Matsuyama, in front of his home support, would love nothing more than to dethrone Tiger after coming so close to an emotional medal win at the Tokyo Olympics, and he will sense an opportunity to do exactly that.
Morikawa and Xander Schauffele aside, this is a pretty weak-field event – just 78 players strong – with the sportsbooks offering odds as short as 35/1 on the likes of Maverick McNealy, Alex Noren and Si-Woo Kim, you know the kind of week we have in store.
Still, golf tournaments don’t win themselves, and it will still take a decent effort to fire a winning score at Narashino, a beatable golf course but one with plenty of trees and doglegs and a splash or two of water to avoid.
It’s quite tight and short at 7,041 yards for its Par of 70, and the Bentgrass greens are smaller than the average on the PGA TOUR. But it looks set to be a cool and wind-free week with some rain too, and so these greens will certainly be nice and receptive.
It’s life under par, but it’s life under par in Japan. It’s sort of business as usual, but it also sort of isn’t, and that’s why some of the names on our sleeper shortlist for the ZOZO Championship are pretty rare picks for this column. But, as you will see, each has a case to be made for them.
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2021 ZOZO Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report
Kyoung-Hoon Lee – 50/1 – Korean golf is in a really good place right now, and K.H. Lee looks set to be the next star of the conveyor belt.
An outstanding ball striker, Lee’s last eight rounds on the PGA TOUR include a 64, three 66s, a 67 and a 68! And so it’s only the odd poor round here and there that have prevented him from building on T14 (Shriners) and T25 (CJ Cup) finishes.
Rewind back and you’ll find stacks of quality performances from the Korean in Japan, where he was a Tour member, including two wins and a second place in the Japan Open Golf Championship.
MacKenzie Hughes – 60/1 – It’s well known that MacKenzie Hughes has an excellent short game, but his ball-striking has been trending nicely of late and so he has that ‘convergent’ quality about him.
The Canadian hasn’t capitalized on that – not since a top-10 in the British Open, at least, but the ingredients are there for a strong showing in what we could call a weak-field event.
Hughes has some history of success on Bentgrass greens and tends to thrive on shorter tracks, so Narashino should hold no fears.
Branden Grace – 66/1 – A player that tends to be difficult to predict, Branden Grace has eleven titles worldwide and so still commands respect despite that fact.
What we like about Grace is that he is well travelled. A winner in his native South Africa as well as China, Qatar and Puerto Rico, he has that ability to play well in all manner of conditions.
T2 at the Wyndham Championship and with a pair of top-30s on the European Tour, Grace is there or thereabouts with his form and might just enjoy this Asian trip more than most.
Robert Streb – 100/1 – While not a player we regularly get involved with, it’s hard to overlook the improvement in Robert Streb’s game of late.
Only three players made more birdies than him at The Summit last week, and that followed a T27 turn at the Shriners in which he opened up 66-67.
An accurate driver and excellent putter, Streb’s ascendance has been powered by an improvement in the bit between those two parameters, so there’s no reason why he can’t go well again in Asia.
Sung Kang – 150/1 – A graduate of various golf tours in Asia, Sung Kang has – from time to time – shown some quality on US soil too.
His form tends to come and go, but rounds of 61 at the Shriners and 64 at the CJ Cup last week reveal a player who has the class to go low.
A noted iron player, Kang has shown improvement on the greens since the start of this season, and that might signal a return to the kind of form that saw him win the Byron Nelson in 2019.
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Want more of this week’s fantasy predictions? Check out our full fantasy preview for the ZOZO Championship here.
Sleeper Report Predictions This Season (2021-2022)
Cover photo via Instagram
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