Watching the Zozo Championship in Japan this week is a trip down memory lane as it was at the Narashino Country Club three years ago that Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer of his time (and arguably of all time), scored his 82nd and probably final PGA Tour victory.
That number equalled Sam Snead’s record and unless Tiger has one more miracle for us it is a shame that, after the fallout from his car losing an argument with a tree and years of surgery on various parts of his anatomy, he looks like stopping there. But, as it’s Tiger, you just never know …
That three-shot victory over Japan’s favourite son Hideki Matsuyama came in the inaugural Zozo – if you’re wondering, it’s the brand name of a Japanese clothing giant – and as the 2020 edition was a Covid victim, punters have only the 2019 and 2021 Zozo for form guidance.
Just as Jon Rahm was always going to be the story in the Open de Espana, so it is with Matsuyama in front of his adoring fans in the PGA Tour’s sole venture into Japan. The pressure on Matsuyama will be marginally less because, unlike Spain, the local hero will be facing top-line opposition, headed by world No.5 Xander Schauffele and No.9 Collin Morikawa, so defeat will be far more excusable.
It is no secret that the Saudi-backed LIV Golf operation has made persistent overtures to Matsuyama who is reported to have turned down a signing-on fee even more eye-popping than the inducements offered to Open champion Cammie Smith and former world No.1 Dustin Johnson. Sums of $300m and higher have been bandied about such is the value of the 2021 Masters champion to LIV’s ambitions in Asia.
Nobody would be surprised if Matsuyama, once he has got the defence of his Zozo title out of the way – he eagled the last for a runaway victory last year – announces a change of heart. At 30 he still has plenty of great golf in him and is not obviously in decline, as many of the early defectors are.
He has already successfully defended a trophy before – back-to-back victories in Phoenix in 2016/17 – but a patchy 2022 in which he had to miss important…
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