ZOZO CB 23

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Some serious wind looks to be in-store this week using the Chiba Bay, Japan weather station on windfinder. Take a look at Friday! SheeshFor final thoughts on waves, weather, and more...make sure to join the LIVE chat tonight starting around 9 PM ET in the NUT HUT.

SH Kim -105 ($7,400) vs. Takumi Kanaya -115 ($7200)

In our first matchup this week we are going to look at Kanaya vs. Kim in a matchup where we saw the odds flip from Kim being the opening favorite, to now showing Kanaya as the active favorite after sharp money came in on the Japanese player in his home country.Kanaya comes into this event with extensive experience at the ZOZO, playing three times with finishes of 53rd, 7th, and 41st. SH Kim on the other hand makes his debut at this tournament this year.Kim started out the fall swing hot with a 2nd at the Fortinet, but has since missed back to back cuts at the Sanderson Farms and Shriners. It looks like ownership will be even on both players so you may be able to gain some leverage with the cheaper player in DFS who also happens to be the favorite.

Xander Schauffele -200 ($11,100) vs. Hideki Matsuyama +165 ($9,800)

It's not often that we get a head to head matchup between two players that are priced $1,300 apart in DFS, but as you can see they made Xander a worthy big time favorite here. He's the class of the field in all markets and has solid course history as well around Accordia, notching two top 10s and finishing better than 28th in all 4 appearances.That said, it somewhat pales in comparison to Hideki, who of course won in 2022 but also finished runner up in 2020. Matsuyama we know has been on site practicing for more than a week. His iron play really began to come back around towards the back half of last season. He is actually gaining more strokes on approach over his last 36 rounds played than any other player in the field this week.Both players should likely eclipse the 18% mark on ownership this week, but the Nut Hut discord projections expect Xander to be the highest owned of the week, likely because people don't mind paying up when you have a solid option near min price. See matchup 3.

David Lingmerth +170 ($6300) vs. Taiga Semikawa -207 ($6100)

I had to highlight this matchup last as money has steadily come flying in on the $6100 priced 22 year old from Japan. SEMIkawa has been playing on the Japanese Tour and racking up solid finished in bunches with 6 top 20 finishes since August included two 2nd place results.The line movement has been wild. Lingmerth opened up a slight dog at +115 before all the action has come in consistently in bunches on Semikawa here. Lingmerth has yet to play an event this fall swing and the last time he made a cut on the PGA Tour was the cosanctioned Scottish Open.Semikawa is however on the radar of many in the DFS circles this week and could eclipse 5% ownership which is almost unheard of for a player priced damn near the min. Good luck gang!

*DISCLAIMER: The Chalk Bomb is CHALK for a reason! This is a ballsy call. We're simply giving you 1 player projected to be highly owned that we think could warrant a fade in order to gain leverage in DFS GPP Tournaments. Sack up & fade OR Ignore the play. All things that go up must eventually come down, and boy did the Chalk Bomb piece come crashing down last week as Tom Kim was able to win the Shriners for the 2nd straight year. Sucks, but in a modest defense, it basically came down to either Ludvig or Tom Kim. Kim seemingly made much more sense from a statistical standpoint and lack of form, and Ludvig also played well so there was no winning fading either player. Let's see if we can rebound in Japan as things kick off in the late hours of Wednesday night this week!We have a pretty interesting week in play given that we don't have any shotlink data from last year to acknowledge and research. What I am leaning on a bit more this week is the course fit tool that DataGolf provides us with. I find it very interesting that their data shows a greater correlation this week with pure Driving Distance vs. the average PGA Tour stop given the overall shorter yardage on the scorecard. I would say that is atypical of the standard less than 7200 yard course stop that we see.In that regard, from a viewing perspective, I can see why. The rough is nothing! It is not penal whatsoever. Now, what I will say, is that if you are really far off line OTT then you will end up in a densely packed forest of trees and looking to scramble your way out with a hope and prayer. When taking a look at the players atop the projected ownership percentages in the Nut Hut research center this week, you will find that the majority have substantial pop in the bat off the tee. That said, there are a few that stick out, and I have selected one to be the chalk bomb this week.You have an uphill climb is you don't rank in the top half of the field this week in average driving distance. The player I have selected is just that, and he ranked a mere 136th on the PGA Tour in Driving Distance. On the contrary off the tee, last season this player hit over 62% of fairways which is fantastic normally, but this week is diminished in importance given what we have seen at Accordia Nirashino over the first four editions of the ZOZO championship.Speaking of previous history at this event, while it hasn't shown to be overly predictive as of yet, I will note the uniqueness on the schedule in terms of significant travel, time difference, shortened field, etc. There is definitely something to draw from past experience in terms of players who have handled the change up well...and those who have not. The Chalk Bomb this week has only played once, last year, losing nearly a full stroke to the field per round. He finished 59th, but that is pretty bad given the field was only 78 and many players are coming from obscure world tours and not used to competing at the level of a PGA Tour pro.I would say that all things considered, the ZOZO last year was his worst performance of the Fall Swing, a season in which we saw him actually win a tournament. The form was there. The biggest thing this week which has clearly inflated his ownership numbers is the DFS price. To the naked eye, it's strikingly cheap. People are gravitating in waves to this player, at a course that I do not think is a great fit for his game, and in a week where the pricing is so spread out that I don't believe you HAVE to click him.You can easily pivot elsewhere, and if you do the legwork, you can find some really cheap options near the bottom of the pricing that will allow you to grab some studs up top. For me, stars and scrubs is the angle to attack this tournament, which will inherently put less emphasis on the 8k range viability as a whole.It pains me to make this player the chalk bomb this week. He's one of my staples on the betting card to week to week and in the long term I really do believe in his upside as a player. That said, this week my friend the CB spares no souls.At nearly 16% projected ownership in DFS, and a salary of $8,200, Mr. Adam Svensson...you are the chalk bomb!

The show "Survivor" has been on for over 20 years and the winners prize is still One Million Dollars. I mean what the f, haven't they heard of inflation. I don't know why a toaster would have a setting any higher than 3. People need to get more unique in their Halloween costumes this year. Here's an idea. Dress up like Santa Claus. No one ever does that. I feel like we really missed a good opportunity to use the letter Z in the word Laser. Alright, that’s all I got this week! I hope you enjoy the Shriners Open. Stay well, good luck with your lineups and bets, and may your screens be green! Bome!