POWER RANKINGS: BUTTERFIELD BERMUDA CHAMPIONSHIP
Monthly Archives: October 2022
‘Inactive’ Posting Season: What You Need to Know

By: USGA
As cooler fall weather establishes itself across much of the country, golfers in some states will find their golf season move from “active” to “inactive” as it pertains to their Handicap Index®. What does that mean, what’s the purpose and what if you play a round in a state that is active but reside in a state that isn’t? The USGA Handicapping Department covers your questions below.
What is the inactive season?
Simply put, the inactive season is the period on the calendar during which any round you play in your home state or region does not count toward your Handicap Index.
But my course is still open during the inactive season, why doesn’t my score count?
The inactive season exists to address how seasonal weather can impact the conditions of a golf course. When an Allied Golf Association (AGA) issues a Course Rating™ and Slope Rating® for each set of tees at a golf course, both are based on effective playing length and difficulty under “normal” conditions. In many parts of the country, there are certain months when facilities remain open but are unable to maintain regular course conditions because of weather. If scores were acceptable for handicap purposes during these times, the Handicap Index of players could be unfairly distorted.
What if I reside in a state that’s inactive but play in a state that’s active?
Let’s say you live in New York but play golf in Florida in January – in that case, your score does count toward your Handicap Index. Just remember that, as in all cases, any rounds played on a course other than your home course should receive an Away or “A” score designation when posting the score.
Who determines the inactive season?
Your local AGA! Note that the duration varies by region with some states (like California and Florida, for example) always staying active due to a favorable year-round climate. To see where your state falls, check out the full Handicap active and inactive season schedule on USGA.org.
How can I learn more about what a Handicap Index is and how it can be used?
The USGA Handicapping Department has a comprehensive series of resources available free for all golfers, complete with FAQs, videos, articles and more. And you can always reach out to your local AGA directly with a question.
Power Rankings: Butterfield Bermuda Championship

By: PGA Tour
One more sprint for the history books, shall we?
This week’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship is the first of four straight full-field opens before the annual holiday hiatus. When the stretch ends, so too with the era of the fall portion of the wraparound seasons.
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Seamus Power, Erik van Rooyen, Charley Hoffman and 2019 champion Brian Gay will be among the notables reviewed in Draws and Fades.
This is the fourth edition of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. Port Royal Golf Course has been its only host. It’s situated on the western perimeter of the British territory. Like most (all?) things in Bermuda, it can’t hide from the wind, so that’s the primary defense on the par 71.
When Port Royal debuted in 2019, there was barely a sea breeze in the final round, but the wind machine has been flipped on since, and it will again be as you’d expect in these climes at this time of the year. Sustained winds up to 20 mph at times are forecast. With an elevated chance for rain and even boomers, this projects to be the toughest edition for scoring. In other words, the elements are going to allow par to have value at Port Royal.
Scoring averages of the last two editions have straddled both sides of par by a quarter-stroke. Last year’s checked in at 70.764. Objectively, lower ball flights keep intended flight paths below the invisible challenge, but Port Royal still is short enough that drivers are luxuries, not necessities. At just 6,828 yards, with greens average in size and putting surfaces rolling no longer than 10½ feet on the Stimpmeter (in fair conditions), the target to contend still is double digits under par.
ShotLink isn’t utilized on the island, so as was the norm before lasers were introduced to PGA TOUR a generation ago, only two holes in opposite directions are used to measure distance off the tee in this tournament – the par 5 second and the par-4 12th. Last year’s field average among all measured drives of 268.3 yards was the shortest among all courses all season. Even on a short, exposed track, that’s the wind acting as a wall. For the sake of historical comparison, it opened at an average of 306.7 yards in primarily pristine conditions in 2019.
If you want to try to have a laugh at the cost of a neighbor, ask what type of grass blankets Port Royal. Yucks aside, the rough isn’t entirely bermuda, in fact; it blends with zoysia. Just as it has been throughout the brief history of this competition, the longest of it is two inches.
Bermuda is situated one hour ahead of Eastern Time in the United States, so adjust your monitoring of the tournament accordingly.
ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE
PGATOUR.com’s Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous perspectives. Look for his following contributions as scheduled.
MONDAY: Power Rankings
TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Draws & Fades
WEDNESDAY: Pick ‘Em Preview
SUNDAY: Medical Extensions, Qualifiers, Reshuffle
* – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.
Men’s Golf Hosts ODU/OBX Intercollegiate to Round Out Fall Season

By: Old Dominion University
This is the 12th year that the Monarchs have hosted the Intercollegiate at Kilmarlic, which features a par of 71 and a total yardage of 6,587. In addition to ODU, the 17-team field includes lineups from Drake, Drexel, Georgetown, Hartford, Longwood, Navy, North Dakota, North Dakota State, Omaha, Radford, St. Bonaventure, Saint Francis (Pa.), Saint Joseph’s, SIU Edwardsville and Villanova.
“I’m very excited to again be able to host our home event in the Outer Banks of North Carolina,” said head coach Murray Rudisill. “We have hosted a tournament here for many years and it’s great to be at Kilmarlic Golf Club again. We have 16 outstanding teams from all over the country. The teams enjoy coming to the ocean in October, which is usually the last tournament of the fall for those programs. We are looking forward to an exciting event.”
The opening round on Sunday will have teams teeing off from the first and 10th holes between 8:30-10:36 a.m., with each group going off in nine-minute intervals. ODU’s three individuals will start on the first hole from 8:48-9:06 a.m., while the remainder of the lineup will go off from the first tee between 10-10:36 a.m.
Delaware won last year’s ODU/OBX Intercollegiate with a 13-under par 839. Drexel shot a 10-under 842 to come in second place and Georgetown came in third with a six-under 846. Drexel’s Drue Nicholas shot a 12-under par 201 to earn individual medalist honors. Delaware’s Roberto Nieves was the runner-up with an eight-under 205 and Drake’s Tim Lim was one stroke behind Nieves and in third place with a seven-under 206.
As a team, ODU shot a four-under 280 in the final round to finish fifth with a combined four-under 848. Rasmus Konradsson was the top finisher for the Monarchs as he tied for seventh at 210 (-3) following back-to-back rounds of 69. Gustav Fransson and Jakob Henriksson both tied for 12th with one-under 212s. Jakob Chicoyne recorded a two-under 215 to tie for 28th, and Filip Wetterqvist rounded out ODU’s scoring five with a 227 to tie for 67th.
For ODU’s individuals, Kazuki Yamauchi tied for 47th at 221, Mason McCoy posted a 54-hole total of 224 to tie for 59th, and John Wang placed 85th with a tally of 236.
The Course
Kilmarlic Golf Club
Powells Point, N.C.
Par: 71
Yardage: 6,587
ODU Lineup
Jakob Chicoyne
Jakob Henriksson
Philip Minnehan
Jacob Gunther
Kazuki Yamauchi
Kaijun Ma*
Aleksander Bjorge*
Michael Minnehan*
*Competing as an individual
Tournament Field
Drake
Drexel
Georgetown
Hartford
Longwood
Navy
North Dakota
North Dakota State
Old Dominion
Omaha
Radford
St. Bonaventure
Saint Francis (Pa.)
Saint Joseph’s
SIUE
Villanova
PLAYERS MENTIONED
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Gustav Fransson
- 6′ 1″
- Senior
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Rasmus Konradsson
- Senior
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Michael Minnehan
- 5′ 8″
- Junior
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Filip Wetterqvist
- 6′ 6″
- Sophomore
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Mason McCoy
- 6′ 3″
- Freshman
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Kazuki Yamauchi
- 5′ 7″
- 154 lbs
- Freshman
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Jakob Henriksson
- Freshman
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John Wang
- 6′ 0″
- Freshman
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Jakob Chicoyne
- 5′ 7″
- Junior
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Kaijun Ma
- Freshman
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Aleksander Bjorge
- Freshman
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Philip Minnehan
- Sophomore
Cameron Young’s affection for Arnold Palmer comes full circle as Rookie of the Year

By: PGA
RIDGELAND, S.C. – Cameron Young now has a trophy to hold as a reward for his impressive debut campaign on the PGA TOUR. Young, a five-time runner-up last season, received the Arnold Palmer Award on Wednesday as the 2022 PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year.
Both Young and Palmer were Wake Forest alums, and another former Demon Deacon, Webb Simpson, delivered the trophy to Young, as did Sungjae Im, the 2019 Palmer Award winner. Simpson and Im playfully stepped through a side entrance in the media center and interrupted the start to Young’s pre-tournament press conference at THE CJ CUP in South Carolina to deliver the news.
With his parents watching from the back of the room, Young sat in his chair and grinned, never before so thrilled to be interrupted. Young follows his former Wake Forest roommate, Will Zalatoris, in winning the award. It is the first time players from the same school have won the top rookie award back-to-back.
“Well, it’s very special,” said Young, who had a pair of third-place performances (including the PGA Championship) to go with his five runner-up showings, which included a solo second at the Open Championship. Young finished 18th in the final FedExCup standings.
“I know the namesake Arnold Palmer obviously was a giant in the game of golf and we have him to thank for a lot of what we do today, what the PGA TOUR is,” he said. “To be related to that in some small way is very cool. I know we had a very strong rookie class and I know it’s voted by my peers, so it’s a huge honor to be thought of in that way, just to kind of finish the year that way.”
Young said his season’s proudest moment was finishing second at the 150th Open Championship at storied St. Andrews. He drove the green and eagled the 72nd hole to shoot 65 on Sunday – including a blistering back nine of 31 – but still got clipped by another Cameron, Australia’s Cameron Smith.
“They love golf over there,” Young said. “And to walk into kind of the town center to play the 18th hole at St. Andrews is different than anything you find anywhere else. So just knowing the history there, and to play well that week, was very cool.”
It was a trip to Scotland and St. Andrews a decade earlier that had sparked Young’s love for the game. At that point, young Cameron, 13, was more into hockey and baseball than golf. But he and his parents – his father, David Young, who recently retired after a 21-year run as head professional at Sleepy Hollow Country Club in New York, and mother, Barb Jones, an avid golfer – visited North Berwick, Gullane, Crail and St. Andrews. It rained for four days. David has pictures of Cam, cold and wet, wearing his father’s rain jacket, which went to his knees.
“I’m thinking, after this trip, this kid is never going to want to play golf again,” David said last spring at the PGA Championship. “But it did just the opposite. It got him excited about it. … He decided that golf was going to be his main sport, and he started working hard at it.”
Young finished second in Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee in the 2022 season, third in driving distance (319.3 yards) and was sixth in birdie average. In addition to finishing solo second at the Open, Young tied for second at the Sanderson Farms Championship, Genesis Invitational, Wells Fargo Championship and Rocket Mortgage Classic. He finished the season on the winning U.S. Team at the Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow. There is a lot for him to build upon moving forward.
David Young, his son’s only teacher, said Wednesday there were two keys to his son’s successful season. For one, he improved his driving, adding more accuracy to his prodigious length; and secondly, he tightened up his short game, spending more time on chipping and putting. David traces that to the 2021 RSM Classic, where it was windy and it was tough to hit greens. Young watched his fellow competitors chipping to tap-in range while he would leave himself 5- and 6-footers for par.
Scottie Scheffler, now World No. 1, was the TOUR’s Rookie of the Year in 2020 without winning a tournament, and now he’s a four-time winner and major champion. He thinks big things are ahead for Young.
“I’m sure you’ll see him have a breakout year and win a couple of times, be on the top of some leaderboards again,” Scheffler said Wednesday. “He hits it hard, he’s very confident.
“With the way he drives the ball, there is no course on TOUR that he can’t compete on. He hits it as far as anybody and hits it as solid as anybody. He’s one of those guys when you see him with a hot putter one week, he’s going to be right there at the top of the leaderboard.”
Young’s first PGA TOUR victory doesn’t feel far away. On Wednesday, he still got to lift a trophy, a well-deserved reward for an impressive season.
LACC to Host 2032 Women’s Open, 2039 U.S. Open

By: USGA
The Los Angeles (Calif.) Country Club will continue its relationship with the USGA when it serves as the host site for the 2032 U.S. Women’s Open Presented by ProMedica and 2039 U.S. Open Championships. The club has previously hosted three USGA championships, most recently the 2017 Walker Cup Match, and will stage the 123rd U.S. Open next June.
“We could not be more excited to bring our two biggest national championships to The Los Angeles Country Club and extend our relationship with the club that dates back more than 90 years,” said John Bodenhamer, USGA chief championships officer. “This is a tremendous sports town, an enthusiastic golf community and home to a great venue for championship golf. We’re very much looking forward to next year’s U.S. Open and thrilled to be returning twice more in the future.”
Situated on the edge of Beverly Hills and established in 1897, The Los Angeles Country Club spans 320 acres and features two 18-hole courses overlooked by nearby cityscape. A 2010 restoration project led by Gil Hanse returned the club’s famed North Course, where the Opens will be contested, to its original George C. Thomas Jr. design.
“With the countdown to next year’s U.S. Open underway, we are excited to welcome the USGA back to The Los Angeles Country Club for not only another U.S. Open in 2039 but also the U.S. Women’s Open in 2032,” said Dick Shortz and John Chulick, co-chairs of LACC’s U.S. Open Committee. “The Los Angeles community embraces major sporting events, and our membership is honored to host the game’s best women and men on our iconic North Course in the years to come.”
The North Course has hosted three USGA championships, starting with the 1930 U.S. Women’s Amateur, when Glenna Collett Vare captured the fifth of her record six titles. In 1954, Foster Bradley Jr. defeated Al Geiberger to claim the U.S. Amateur title, and most recently, it was the site of the 2017 Walker Cup Match, which was claimed decisively by the United States, 19-7. The North Course also hosted the Los Angeles Open, now the Genesis Invitational, five times between 1926 and 1940.
In June, The Los Angeles Country Club will become just the third U.S. Open venue in Southern California, joining The Riviera Country Club in nearby Pacific Palisades (1948) and Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego (2008, 2021). The 87th playing of the U.S. Women’s Open will mark the third time the championship will be played in Southern California after San Diego Country Club in Chula Vista hosted the event in 1964, when the legendary Mickey Wright earned the last of her four victories, with The Riviera Country Club scheduled to host in 2026.
Earlier this year, Australian Minjee Lee claimed the U.S. Women’s Open title with a record-setting four-stroke victory at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club in Southern Pines, N.C., joining a Hall-of-Fame group of players to have won both the U.S. Girls’ Junior and U.S. Women’s Open. The championship is open to female professionals and amateurs with a Handicap Index® not exceeding 2.4.
Matt Fitzpatrick hoisted the U.S. Open Trophy in June after completing a one-stroke victory at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., where he also triumphed in the U.S. Amateur nine years prior. The Englishman joined 18-time major champion Jack Nicklaus as the only golfers to have won the USGA’s two oldest championships at the same venue. To be eligible for U.S. Open qualifying, a player must have a Handicap Index® not exceeding 1.4, or be a professional.
Women’s Golf Takes Fifth Place at The Ally

By: Old Dominion University
“We played well this tournament,” said head coach Mallory Kane. “Old Waverly is a demanding course and the wind and colder temperatures made it very hard. We would have liked to have finished a little higher up on the leaderboard, but we definitely showed what are capable of doing.”
The Monarchs opened the tournament with a combined 298 on Monday morning, followed by a 16-over 304 on Monday afternoon. ODU’s 54-hole total of 900 (+34) was one stroke behind Alabama, who carded an 899 (+34) to grab fourth place. Ole Miss finished atop the team leaderboard with a three-over 867, Southern Miss came in second with a five-over 869, and the host Bulldogs were third at 22-over 886.
Ole Miss’ Andrea Lignell was the individual champion after shooting a three-under par 213. SMU’s Ellie Szeryk was the runner-up with a one-under 215, and JMU’s Kendall Turner and Ole Miss’ Ellen Hume tied for third with even scores of 216.
Lucia Gonzalez turned in ODU’s best round on Tuesday, a two-under 70 for her final trip around the course. The freshman from Monterrey, Mexico ended up tied for 13th and five-over par with a 221. Leah Onosato was next for the Monarchs as her nine-over 225 tied her for 20th. Federica Torre was two strokes behind her and tied for 27th at 227, Minami Kudo tied for 19th at 235, and Klara Wildaber posted a 238 to tie for 22nd.
Gonzalez finished tied for second in par-5 scoring with a 4.75 average and was also tied for fourth in par-3 scoring with an average of 2.92. Onosato led the team with 11 birdies, Wildhaber and Gonzalez both had eight, and Gonzalez made a team-high 35 putts for par.
“The last day of competition in the fall is always bittersweet,” continued Kane. “We are looking forward to some rest but will certainly miss tournament golf in the coming months. We showed a lot of promise this fall and we do feel like this is a special team. They are very capable of playing great golf and with some dedicated work this off season, we will be ready for a successful spring.”
Team Results
1. Ole Miss (292-287-288 – 867) +3
2. SMU (282-291-296 – 869) +5
3. Mississippi State (303-288-295 – 886) +22
4. Alabama (307-298-294 – 899) +35
5. Old Dominion (298-304-298 – 900) +36
6. Illinois (295-307-303 – 905) +41
7. Missouri (308-300-299 – 907) +43
8. James Madison (306-309-294 – 909) +45
9. Indiana (309-294-307 – 910) +46
10. Chattanooga (307-298-316 – 921) +57
11. Mercer (310-312-317 – 939) +75
ODU Lineup
T13. Lucia Gonzalez (74-77-70 – 221) +5
T20. Leah Onosato (75-73-77 – 225) +9
T27. Federica Torre (73-75-79 – 227) +11
T46. Minami Kudo (82-79-74 – 235) +19
T53. Klara Wildhaber (76-85-77 – 238) +22
PLAYERS MENTIONED
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Leah Onosato
- 5′ 4″
- Junior
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Federica Torre
- Graduate Student
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Lucia Gonzalez
- 5′ 8″
- Freshman
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Minami Kudo
- 5′ 2″
- Junior
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Klara Wildhaber
- 5′ 5″
- Junior
CNU Women’s Golf Wraps Up First Semester Action With Appearance at Golfweek Fall Invitational

By: Christopher Newport University
With the overall performance, the Captains logged the second finest team score in program history for a 54-hole tournament. Last season, CNU set a program record with a 935 (+71) at the Golfweek DIII Invite and this year’s showing in the same event ranks second all-time in both total score and relative to par.
Along the way, the Captains also inserted this week’s performance onto the single-round low charts as well, twice. In the first round, the CNU women recorded the second lowest single round effort in program history and the second round effort also ranked in the top-six all-time.
Playing at the Baytowne Golf Club in Sandestin, Fla., the Captains finished the third round with a 324 to wrap up a 77-over par effort as a team. On the individual leaderboard, Sims fired the best round of the day on Tuesday with a seven-over 79 while teammates Katie Watson and Alex Delgado were just one stroke behind her with eight-over 80’s. D’yan Robinson contributed her 85 (+13) on the final day of her first career 54-hole event.
Sims got off to a great start, shooting an even Par 36 on the first nine holes. She bogeyed the third hole but ran off three straight pars before a birdie two on the 106-yard Par 3 seventh hole to get back to Even. On the back nine, she added five more pars to finish with a team-high 34 for the tournament. She finished tied for 29th with a 231 (72-80-79).
Watson notched three more birdies to finish with a team-high eight over the three rounds of play. The rookie also had seven pars to finish with an 80 on the day. For the tournament, she tied for 81st with a 246 (86-80-80). Delgado shot up three spots to finish tied for 37th with a 234 (80-74-80). The second-year star notched two more birdies, with a three on the 310-yard Par 4 eighth and a four on the 410-yard Par 5 thirteenth holes.
Rounding out the counting scores on Tuesday was Robinson, with seven pars and one birdie to finish with an 85. She birdied the 471-yard Par 5 fifth hole for the second day in a row and led the Captains in Par 5 scoring during the week (5.07).
Sophomore Elena Rezac (+31) tied for 86th on the individual leaderboard. With her effort, the Captains had all five starters finish in the top 90 — they were one of only eight teams in the 24-team field to accomplish that feat.
The Captains will return to action next Spring when they take on the Savannah Invitational on March 6-7.
PLAYERS MENTIONED
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Alex Delgado
- 5′ 3″
- Sophomore
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Elena Rezac
- 5′ 6″
- Sophomore
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Lauren Sims
- 5′ 3″
- Senior
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Katie Watson
- 5′ 3″
- Freshman
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D’yan Robinson
- 5′ 3″
- Freshman
Power Rankings: THE CJ CUP

By: PGA
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Rory McIlroy’s Round 4 highlights from THE CJ CUP
From South Korea to South Carolina, albeit eventually and out of necessity.
After three years contested on Jeju Island at the southern tip of the Asian country, THE CJ CUP has been held in the United States since 2020 due to ongoing challenges related to the pandemic. This year’s host is Congaree Golf Club in The Palmetto State.
If the stage for THE CJ CUP at South Carolina sounds familiar, it should. Keep reading beneath the projected contenders for a brief history of the worthy track, how it should test and more.
POWER RANKINGS: THE CJ CUP
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Collin Morikawa, Hideki Matsuyama, Billy Horschel and Tyrrell Hatton will be among the notables reviewed in Draws and Fades.
The PGA TOUR’s first (and only prior) stop at this week’s host course was for the Palmetto Championship at Congaree in June of 2021. Garrick Higgo prevailed, and after gaining entry via a commissioner exemption no less. To put the timing of that tournament into perspective, it was two seasons ago and it marked the first anniversary of the Return to Golf after the three-month shutdown due to COVID-19.
The TOUR’s return to Congaree is for a much different competition. Whereas the Palmetto Championship hosted a full field of 156 with a 36-hole cut, THE CJ CUP at South Carolina reserves room for only 78, and there is no cut. Officially, eight spots are saved for golfers from South Korea – five KPGA members and three via the Official World Golf Ranking – but there are 14 natives or golfers with South Korean heritage committed thanks to the growing depth of talent among members. Of those who competed in the Palmetto Championship, 19 are back this week. Higgo did not qualify.
Congaree Golf Club was designed by Tom Fazio. He and his team sought out to replicate the kind of layout that you’d find in Australia’s Sandbelt region in Melbourne. So, there isn’t a relevant sightline that isn’t consumed with sand and/or native area.
Congaree is a par 71 with three par 5s and it tips at 7,655 yards. Rough essentially is a rumor on the property, but what little there is has been allowed to scale to four inches. Champion bermuda greens are average in size and prepped to run as far as 13 feet on the Stimpmeter.
Hot and humid conditions dominated for the first three rounds here in 2021, but the elements this week will be considerably different, as you’d expect four months and change later in the year. Thursday’s daytime high won’t eclipse 70 degrees. It will warm gradually thereafter but the highest temperatures will settle in the mid-70s. Rain is not expected and winds will be light, so Congaree is poised to be pure.
The host course averaged 71.743 for the 156-man field in 2021. That slotted it as the second-hardest of all non-majors in the super season of 2020-21 and about a half-shot higher than third-hardest Riviera Country Club, host of 120 golfers for The Genesis Invitational.
Because of its length, Congaree will reward distance off the tee, but the fairways are generous, so it’s more of a second-shot exercise than it seems. Taut games on approach and with the shortest sticks will define the final leaderboard.
Power Rankings: ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP

By: PGA Tour
Typically, a career year for any professional athlete isn’t identifiable until there’s agreement that the glory days have passed. For the best talent at any time, evidence suggesting future greater achievement is filed regularly, so it’s a fool’s errand to argue that a career year already has been cemented. Yet, there are exceptions.
In professional golf, winning a major constitutes candidacy for a career year, but Hideki Matsuyama is only 30 years old, so classifying his career year as 2021 when he became Japan’s first male major champion at the Masters, could be rushing to judgment despite the historic accomplishment. However, the year also included his participation in the Olympics in his native Japan where he was edged for a medal, and it ended with victory at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP, also in his homeland. It was a lot, and it was great.
The moral of the matter is that it would be unfair to expect any golfer to convert on a combination of those successes when the stars align like that. So, while it may prove not to be Matsuyama’s career year in the context of an overall body of work, it likely will be the most special year of his career personally, so it demands this moment to appreciate it because he defends the last of those highlights at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club in Chiba this week.
POWER RANKINGS: ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP
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Corey Conners, Cam Davis and Shriners co-runner-up Matthew NeSmith will be among the notables reviewed in Draws and Fades.
The ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP opens a fortnight reserved for 78-man invitationals. THE CJ CUP in South Carolina is on deck. Both are rewards to the top 60 in the previous season’s FedExCup standings and neither has a cut. (Each field reserves space for the top 60 eligible among those who qualified for the Playoffs.)
The event’s location in Japan is a giveaway that the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP is conducted in conjunction with the Japan Golf Tour, although it’s not an official event for the latter. Fifteen JGTO members are in the field, the majority of whom can be found at the top of their money list. Another is Keita Nakajima, who is making just his third start as a professional after an extended stretch atop the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Narashino is a par 70 with five par 3s and three par 5s. The nines are respective pars of 34 and 36. After debuting in 2019 with a scoring average of about one-half stroke under par, it returned in 2021 standing taller at 70.484. (Because of the pandemic, the 2020 edition was held at Sherwood Country Club in California.) After Matsuyama grabbed outright possession of the 36-hole lead, he sprinted through the finish line and posted 15-under 265 to win by five.
The composite routing of the King and Queen Courses is 38 yards longer this year at 7,079 yards. The extensions occurred at the par-3 fifth that now can play as long as 205 yards after an increase of 14 yards, and at the par-4 10th that’s an even 400 yards with 24 yards of added length.
Thursday’s opening round almost certainly will be a wet one, but dry conditions are expected for most of the remainder. Wind won’t trouble much and daytime temperatures will climb into the mid-70s, eventually, so scoring projects not to be harder than it was a year ago, but asking for another field average that’s a red number might be aggressive.
Weather permitting, bentgrass greens are poised to crank at 12½ feet on the Stimpmeter. The first two editions were prepped for 11½ and 12 feet, respectively. Members of the JGTO typically aren’t tested as often on this kind of pace. Also, because the tournament is scheduled a couple of weeks earlier than its first two spins in Japan, the thickest of the 3½-inch rough figures to be lusher than how returning entrants remember it.
Course management is the priority, but now that there’s experience on the greens, ball-strikers aren’t benefited as much as they are on a new track. They’re going to need to roll in some putts, too. Matsuyama wasn’t going to be denied, so citing the fact that he led the field in greens in regulation and ranked second in scrambling presents and unrealistic benchmark for all. (ShotLink isn’t utilized at Narashino.)
Speaking of hitting greens, the layout at Narashino serves as living history of golf in Japan. Each of the 18 holes has two greens. It was designed that way to extend playability across seasons of the year. The local rule is that when a golfer lands on the wrong green, he is allowed a free drop off the shortest of grass and no nearer the hole. For deeper detail on the possibilities this week, read this.
Last year’s ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP began at 8:30 a.m. local time on Thursday. Chiba is 13 hours ahead of Eastern Time in the United States, so it teed off at 7:30 p.m. EDT on Wednesday. Consider this adjustment for how you monitor the action.