Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2023 ZOZO Championship

2023 ZOZO Championship Fantasy Sleeper Report

Tom Kim isn’t your ordinary 21-year-old golfer.

In an era of the sport that has become obsessed with distance and club head speed, Kim is refreshingly old school; he hits stacks of fairways and greens in regulation, and then hopes that he’s having a good week with the putter.

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If he is, great things tend to happen – such as becoming the youngest three-time winner on the PGA TOUR since Tiger Woods.

Two of those titles have come at the Shriners Children’s Open, with TPC Summerlin an ideal host for his ball-on-a-string stylings.

Kim forced his way into contention at the 54-hole stage with a Saturday 62, and while plenty were willing to give him a run for his money on Sunday, few can match the Korean for his perceived grace under pressure.

Three birdies early on in the back nine and that was all she wrote: Adam Hadwin the only player to get within one shot of Kim, but unable to halt his opponent’s irresistible march to the trophy.

Onwards the PGA TOUR marches too through its Fall Series, with the action now re-routing to Bermuda, Mexico and first Japan, where this week’s ZOZO Championship will unfold.

Those players embroiled in the Fall shenanigans will tee it up at Narashino Country Club, as will defending champion Keegan Bradley and those with emotional ties to Japan: Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa and – naturally – Hideki Matsuyama amongst them.

The identities of the three winners of this event at Narashino – Bradley, Matsuyama and Tiger – are confirmation of what is required to triumph at this venue: you need to be good. Damn good.

That will reveal itself off the tee, where tight fairways and sharp doglegs await, on approach – the Bentgrass greens are small in size and well protected, and on the putting surfaces themselves, which will run as pure as you’d expect at any blue riband course in North America.

Open the search to include runners-up, such as Fowler, Brendan Steele and Andrew Putnam, and the objective is clear: only backing those players able to keep their ball under the tightest of control is the modus operandi for bettors this week.

But who will do just that….and at juicy odds into the bargain? Here’s five potential candidates courtesy of our ZOZO Championship 2023 sleeper shortlist.

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J.J. Spaun – 50/1 – Talk about ball-striking form: J.J. Spaun has gained strokes on the field in that department in each of his last six measured outings.

That hasn’t necessarily delivered the results you might expect – T11 at the Fortinet Championship the best of the bunch, but consistent tee-to-green prowess will usually take a player close to a trophy at some point in their near future.

A player that has popped at a number of our correlating courses this week, Spaun has also travelled well to the likes of Mayakoba, Kapalua and Nine Bridges in South Korea; he can hopefully defy the air miles and continue his fine ball-striking form in Japan too.

Aaron Rai – 50/1 – Prior to returning to PGA TOUR action at the Shriners last week, Aaron Rai posted an excellent second place at the BMW PGA Championship on the DP World Tour.

Wentworth is a classic, tree-lined parklands layout, and it’s those landscapes that have served Rai with some of his best moments in the sport – including victories around the world.

A former full-time member of the DP World Tour, Rai is well adept at traversing continents in the search for trophies – a win in Hong Kong back in 2018 confirms his comfort in Asian conditions too.

Emiliano Grillo – 50/1 – Two consecutive missed cuts have seen Emiliano Grillo slip down the sportsbooks’ pecking order.

But 50/1 about the world number 35 in a relatively weak field event with no cut seems like a gift for value hunters, and there’s enough evidence to suggest that Grillo can surprise a few with his efforts at Narashino this week.

The Argentine is comfortable travelling the world, delivering top-fives in countries as diverse as Japan, Dubai and Malaysia in the past, but it’s his performance not that long ago on a classic American layout that intrigues the most.

Grillo won the Charles Schwab Challenge at the tight and testing Colonial GC, and while Narashino is somewhat more forgiving, the Argentine’s ability to keep his ball on a tight leash will surely stand him in excellent stead all the same….he was T4 here 12 months ago.

Vincent Norrman – 55/1 – A missed cut at the Shriners aside, Vincent Norrman’s career is developing nicely.

The 25-year-old has won twice since July at the Barbasol Championship and the DP World Tour’s Irish Open, and a subsequent T18 at the claustrophobic Wentworth confirms he’s more than a one trick pony.

While Norrman’s great strength is his driving, he won’t be inconvenienced by clubbing down and attacking the greens from the fairway this week – he’s gained strokes on the field on approach in four of his last five outings, the Shriners aside.

Taylor Moore – 66/1 – When you’re comparing and contrasting form at tight layouts that are tree heavy, Torrey Pines (home of the Farmers Insurance Open) is a decent place to start.

Bradley finished second there last year as a guide, while Taylor Moore wasn’t too far behind in T11.

He won the Valspar Championship this season, you may recall, at the tree-lined, doglegging and small-greened Innisbrook, while solo sixth at the Rocket Mortgage Classic – another tree-heavy, less-than-driver sort of layout – also hints at the skillset Moore possesses….one which should come in very handy at Narashino. 

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Want more of this week’s fantasy predictions? Check out our full fantasy preview for the ZOZO Championship here.

Fantasy Golf Predictions This Season (2023-2024)

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