ZOZO Championship Recap<\/h3>\n
It was a battle of drought-ridden Keegan Bradley and Rickie Fowler with the former prevailing for his first win in four years. Bradley was on our top-10 board heading into the tournament to pick up where we left off last season, with 24 of 38 (63%) winners in 2022 entering the event in Total Strokes Gained over the last six months.<\/p>\n
CJ Cup Odds Board<\/h3>\n
[#2] Rory McIlroy +2.90 (+750) B365
[#5] Jon Rahm +2.19 (+900) B365 | FD | DK | MGM
[#1] Scottie Scheffler +2.02 (+1400) B365 | FD
[#18] Max Homa +1.88 (+1600) DK | MGM
[#10] Matthew Fitzpatrick +1.85 (+2500) B365
[#13] Jordan Spieth +1.80 (+2800) MGM
[#20] Sungjae Im +1.79 (+2600) FD
[#16] Cameron Young +1.69 (+3000) B365
[#8] Justin Thomas +1.63 (+1600) DK | MGM
[#39] Aaron Wise +1.56 (+5000) MGM
Notables
[#21] Shane Lowry +1.43 (+3300) MGM
[#12] Sam Burns +1.40 (+2800) DK | PB | MGM
[#15] Joohyung \u201cTom\u201d Kim +1.28 (+2800) DK | PB | MGM (+1.82 L3 months)
*(odds shopped from Bet365, DraftKings, FanDuel, PointsBet & BetMGM)<\/p>\n
The CJ Cup Course & Field<\/h3>\n
The tournament had been contested in South Korea in each of its first three years, but since the pandemic-challenged year of 2020, it has been played stateside including Shadow Creek and The Summit Club, both in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
This year, the tournament is being played at Congaree Golf Club in South Carolina, home of 2021\u2019s Palmetto Championship, won by Garrick Higgo, who is not in the field this week.<\/p>\n
Some quick info on the course: Congaree is a Tom Fazio-designed par 71 with only three par 5s, but plays very long at over 7,600 yards. There is very little rough on the course with a lot of natural sandy areas, so bombers should have their hay day. Greens are very fast and could reach up to 13 on the stimpmeter which will require deft touch around the greens.<\/p>\n
In 2021\u2019s Palmetto Championship, the course average 0.74 strokes over par which ranked as the second-hardest non-major track that year.<\/p>\n
This week features another limited field event with no cut and is easily the most star-studded field so far this season, and the last of this caliber we will see in 2022. Only four of the world\u2019s top-20 are missing this week. Both Patrick Cantlay and Tony Finau are a healthy-scratch, along with LIV\u2019s Cameron Smith, and Will Zalatoris who is out with injury.<\/p>\n
Weather looks good with a chilly start on Thursday as temperatures will only be in the 60s before settling into the 70s for the remaining three days. Rain is not in the forecast and winds are expected to be light so scoring conditions will be ideal.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t expect this to be a birdie fest like we saw last year in Vegas with Rory prevailing at 25-under. Higgo won here in 2021 at 12-under, so expect something closer to that number this week.<\/p>\n
Nick\u2019s CJ Cup Betting Favorites<\/h3>\n
With the field as loaded as it is, don\u2019t expect a longshot winner this week. Instead, narrow your focus onto a select few of the favorites to give yourself a chance on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Outright Winner: Jordan Spieth +2800<\/strong> (FanDuel) Spieth has plenty of distance to keep up this week and Congaree\u2019s forgiveness off the tee plays right into his hands. I also like Spieth this week because of how fast the greens can get as that always requires creativity with short game and few are better than Spieth in that area.<\/p>\n Spieth also won this past season in the state of South Carolina at the RBC Heritage which should give the Texan even further confidence heading to the Palmetto state.<\/p>\n Top-20 Finish: Viktor Hovland -105<\/strong> (DraftKings) Hovland has made a name for himself with his ball-striking as he ranks as one of the best in the world, but he has also been putting very well, gaining strokes in each of his last six starts. He has plenty of distance this week and is fantastic with his irons, so as long as he can keep his weakness in check, that is his short game, Hovland should be in the mix on Sunday.<\/p>\n Featured Matchup: Corey Conners -120 over Keegan Bradley<\/strong> You have to wonder how much Keegan has in the tank for this week. That emotionally draining win ended a four-year winless run for Keegan and he couldn\u2019t stop crying, winning for the first time as a father. Add in the fact that he is making the trip from Japan back to the US for this short turn-around, and you can easily understand a letdown here.<\/p>\n Conners hasn\u2019t had the best run of form recently, with only one top-10 in his last seven starts, but by that same token, he has only finished outside the top-28 one time as well which speaks to his level of consistency.<\/p>\n Conners also teed it up last week in Japan but shouldn\u2019t be nearly as drained as a first round 73 had him out of contention early, but he did rebound with three straight 67s. Conners had a terrible showing in the Presidents Cup and is eager to rebound from that.<\/p>\n See you next week for the Bermuda Championship!<\/p>\n\n\n
We saw Tom Kim parlay his fantastic President\u2019s Cup form into a win on the PGA Tour just a couple weeks ago, and nobody had a better President\u2019s Cup than Jordan Spieth. Sure, it\u2019s now a month removed from that US victory, but Spieth should still have some good mojo flowing.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a little weary with Hovland making the trip from Japan last week but his game has been rounding into form after a rough stretch we saw from him for a couple of months last summer. Hovland used a third round 64 to vault him up the leaderboard before ultimately finishing T5 at the ZOZO. He also played two DP World Tour events since the Tour Championship this fall including finishing T5 at the BMW PGA Championship.<\/p>\n
I quickly looked to find who would be paired up against Bradley this week and there are honestly a lot of potential matchups that I would fade Bradley in. Many books tend to differ in their H2H matchup offerings, so use your judgement, but don\u2019t be afraid to fade last week\u2019s winner.<\/p>\n
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