ZOZO 2021 Heavy Petting

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If golf research were sexual...you'd be rounding 2nd base after this.

• Par 70 / 7,041 yards with 3 Par 5's (2 reachable) & 5 Par 3's

• Tree lined, doglegs off the tee, but the rough was not penal at all in 2019. You can bomb and gouge OR shorter players can just bunt it out to the fairways. Either way works.

• It's all about approach play into these slightly smaller, undulating bentgrass greens

• Around the green play matters a little more than it has over the last couple of weeks as scoring will be slightly tougher and the GIR% is likely lower

• Tiger won here at -19. Hideki was runner up at -16. Sungjae & others were behind Hideki at -13. Only 9 players finished better than -10 in a MUCH STRONGER field

• The best finish in 2019 by a full time Japan Tour Golfer was T41 (Chan Kim)

• LINEUP LOCK IS EARLY as Tokyo is in the future. It will likely lock on Wednesday around 7:30pmET

• OWNERSHIP & LINEUP CONSTRUCTION MATTER probably more than any other stat. Studs & Duds will be the popular play as the top 4 players in the field have implied odds to win of nearly 38%

1. Top 10 DK points scored last 24 rounds: 1. Ryder 2. Vegas 3. Higgs 4. EVR 5. McNealy 6. Perez 7. KH Lee 8. Merritt 9. Kang 10. CT Pan

2. Strokes gained putting leaders on bent grass: 1. Noren 2. Hughes 3. Todd 4. Tringale 5. Perez 6. Schauffele 7. Merritt 8. Schenk 9. Straka 10. McNealy

3. Strokes gained T2G leaders the last 3 calendar months: 1. Matsuyama 2. Vegas 3. Zalatoris 4. Niemann 5. KH Lee 6. EVR 7. McNealy 8. Walker 9. Fowler 10. Perez

4. On courses that are <7200 yards,  easy to average scoring & bent greens, your top 10 in total strokes gained are: 1. Casey 2. Schauffele 3. Niemann 4. Morikawa 5. Steele 6. Tringale 7. Matsuyama 8. Bradley 9. Noren 10. Perez

5. Top 10 JUST strokes gained ball striking on courses that are <7200 yards, difficult to hit fairways, & easy to average scoring: 1. Grillo 2. Stanley 3. Casey 4. Niemann 5. Morikawa 6. Bradley 7. SI WOO 8. Hoge 9. Kirk 10. Munoz

6. Top 10 in birdies or better gained the last 50 rounds: 1. Vegas 2. Hoffman 3. Morikawa 4. Casey 5. Merritt 6. McNealy 7. Schenk 8. Grace 9. Grillo 10. Wallace

7. Strokes gained on the par 4's will be the most important this week, your top 10 the last 50 rounds: 1. Morikawa 2. Kirk 3. Grace 4. Schauffele 5. Wallace 6. Zalatoris 7. Casey 8. Todd 9. Perez 10. Grillo

8. Top 10 in GIR's gained the last 12 rounds: 1. Zalatoris 2. Chan Kim 3. KH Lee 4. Jones 5. List 6. Stanley 7. Vegas 8. Bryan 9. Tringale 10. Grillo

9. The two highest approach shot distribution buckets this week are 125-150 & 175-200, your top 10 in proximity: 1. Morikawa 2. Matsuyama 3. Casey 4. Ghim 5. Bradley 6. Bryan 7. Grillo 8. NeSmith 9. Kodaira 10. EVR

10. Top 10 projected points per salary dollar (good values): 1. Schauffele 2. Hagy 3. Vegas 4. Jones 5. List 6. Clark 7. Hoffman 8. Matsuyama 9. Niemann 10. Sloan

Stephan JaegerJaeger's likely a name you know as this is now his 3rd time advancing to the PGA TOUR from the KFT. He finished #1 in the order of merit with 2 wins and 3 runner ups last season. He's the winningest player in KFT history with 6. Jaeger knows how to win and close the door when he's in contention. He's a veteran grinder with a worldwide game having grown up in Germany before moving to the states for college. He played for UT Chattanooga and lives in Chattanooga now. The weakness in is game is off the tee. He's a short hitter and doesn't hit a super high clip of fairways despite the lack of pop. But, he finished 27th in GIR%, 1st in Sand Saves, 2nd in Scrambling, 3rd in Putting Average, and 2nd in Birdie Average last season. Needless to say...he's a grinder. He'll likely be better off on tougher tracks where par is your friend and the winning score doesn't get beyond -15 or so. Before this new season, he'd made 32 of 62 cuts on the PGA TOUR in his career with ZERO Top 10s, but a handful of Top 20s.Davis RileyAnother name you've likely heard of is the U of Alabama stud, Davis Riley. He was raised in Mississippi and still lives there for now. Davis finished 7th in the order of merit on the KFT with 2 victories. He's a decent total driver of the ball. He finished 21st in Driving Distance and somewhat middle of the pack in accuracy. He finished 39th in GIR %, but when he misses a green...he's AWFUL scrambling. Think Viktor Hovland bad...He is a great putter though (way better than Viktor). He makes plenty of birdies and finished the KFT season with 7 Top 10s in 36 events.

Reed vs. Finau