PGA Tour Fantasy Golf Picks: 2019 ZOZO Championship

The PGA Tour continues it’s Asian swing with the inaugural ZOZO Championship. Fantasy golf players will be presented with an event that has an outstanding field, including 2019 Masters champion Tiger Woods.

Before I get into my DraftKings fantasy golf player picks for the inaugural ZOZO Championship, let’s take a look at the golf course the field will contend with this week and the key statistics I will be focusing on for this event.

This event will be played at Accordia Narashino Golf Club in Japan. This track is a par 70 that measures approximately 7,041 yards. Water hazards are in play on four holes. The greens are small and undulating. Additionally, the green complexes are heavily protected by bunkers.

This is the inaugural playing of the ZOZO Championship. Unfortunately, that means fantasy golf players will not have any previous course history to evaluate as they compose player pools for DraftKings contests, unless you count the Japan Skins exhibition from Monday.

Due to the fact I have no previous course history to research, I am going to stick with the basics with regard to key statistics for this week.

The key statistics I will be focusing on for this tournament are driving accuracy, GIR (greens in regulation), putts per GIR, and scrambling.

I should also note that the ZOZO Championship is a no cut event with a field of only 78 golfers. That means there’s no worry about making the cut, so every player will have four rounds to let it fly.

Let’s shift our focus to what I love to do the most! Here are my DraftKings fantasy golf selections for the ZOZO Championship.

Hideki Matsuyama $10,700

Believe it or not, Hideki Matsuyama, who is currently the 27th ranked golfer in the world, has not won an event on the PGA Tour since 2017.

Having stated that, I like the look of Hideki’s game lately and firmly believe that he will win another PGA Tour event very soon. As a matter of fact, I think Hideki maybe holding the inaugural ZOZO Championship trophy on Sunday afternoon!

Let me provide some data to support my opinion that Hideki’s game is trending in a direction that will lead to a win in the near future.

Let’s take a look at Hideki’s current form by focusing on his last five tournaments on the PGA Tour. He has four top 16 finishes in those five events. Let’s take a closer look at a few of those quality results in his last five events to provide even more clarity to his outstanding recent play.

Hideki finished third at the BMW Championship (a FedEx playoff event) in September, he followed up that result with a 12th place at the season ending Tour Championship. More recently, Hideki finished third at last week’s CJ Cup at Nine Bridges.

I mentioned earlier in this article that I was focusing on GIR (greens in regulation) as one of my key statistics for this week’s event in Japan. Well, as I researched the field statistics for last week’s CJ Cup I observed that Hideki finished third in the field in GIR at Nine Bridges. He hit 83.3% of his greens in regulation for the four day event. That is clearly outstanding!

Andrew Putnam $7,400

Andrew Putnam has played very consistent, quality golf over his last three tournaments. Based on his recent play, I think he has a chance to perform rather well in Japan this week.

Let’s take a closer look at Putnam’s last three events. Putnam finished 21st at the BMW PGA Championship in September, he followed up that quality result with an 18th place finish at the Shriners Hospitals For Children Open, and finished sixth in last week’s CJ Cup at Nine Bridges.

I was also impressed by Putnam’s statistical performance at the CJ Cup. He was fifth in the field in driving accuracy. Putnam hit a very impressive 83.9% of his fairways for the week in South Korea, and if he can stay out of trouble in Japan, he’s got a great shot at another strong finish.

The data clearly illustrates that Putnam’s only real weakness last week was his putting. If Putnam can get his putter hot at the ZOZO Championship and continue the outstanding ball striking that he showed at the CJ Cup, Mr. Putnam has the potential to surprise some people this week in Japan.

If you are looking for additional golfers to complete your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups I also like the following players to possibly top 20 this week.

Pat Perez $7,300

Perez finished third at the Shriners Hospitals For Children Open earlier this month.

Charles Howell III $7,300

Howell III arrives in Japan on the heels of a 20th place finish last week at the CJ Cup at Nine Bridges.

Graeme McDowell $6,800

He won the 2019 Corales Puntacana Resort and Clup Championship earlier this year. More recently McDowell finished 15th at the Italian Open earlier this month.

Kevin Streelman $6,700

He has two top 12 finishes in his last four starts on the PGA Tour. Streelman was third in the field in putts per GIR (1.654) at the CJ Cup.

If you have any specific player questions, feel free to contact me on Twitter at @geeversgolf.

Good luck this week!