Zozo Championship Each-Way Tips: Take Tyrrell for the win

Main Bet: Tyrrell Hatton each-way @ 26.025/1

The PGA Tour heads to Japan this week for the fourth edition of the Zozo Championship.

One of the previous three was played in California due to the pandemic, stripping punters of one batch of course form.

And, to make things worse, data from the Narashino Country Club course only appears to have been kept from the inaugural 2019 edition. Even then, it was only old-school numbers as Strokes Gained stats weren't recorded.

At least the limited field of 78 helps whittle things down.

Tiger Woods won that 2019 event and did so by doing everything well: 7th Driving Accuracy, 3rd GIR, 26th, Scrambling, 2nd Putting.

Runner-up Hideki Matsuyama was 7th for GIR and 2nd for Putting while Sungjae Im, who finished tied third, was 4th in Putting Average. Putting looks key it seems.

Im was one of just two players in the top 12 to finish outside the top 20 for GIR.

Clues are also to be found by going down the correlating courses route.

Rory McIlroy mentioned Chapultepec, the Mexican venue which hosted a WGC event. "It sort of reminds me a bit of the course we play in Mexico. Sort of tree-lined, doglegs and having to cut off corners."

Firestone also got mentions. That's another tree-lined country club and always rewarded good drivers.

Indeed, both the winners of this event in Japan - Woods and Matsuyama - have won at Firestone.

I'm going to start off with a punt on Tyrrell Hatton at 25/1.

Hatton has finished eighth (Italian Open) and seventh (Alfred Dunhill Links Championship) in his last two starts and putted strongly in both.

He gained over 4.2 strokes on the greens each time and ranked 9th and 4th respectively for SG: Off The Tee so drove it well too.

The Chapultepec link certainly helps his case. The Englishman teed it up four times at the WGC-Mexico Championship and had finishes of 10-3-19-6.

He has other bits of form on courses that should correlate well such as a third at Hilton Head and an 8th at Sedgefield and winning between the trees at Wentworth in 2020 adds another tick.

Back the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational winner to make his course debut a winning one at 25/1.

Next Best: Tom Hoge each-way @ 34.033/1

One quirk of Narashino Country Club is that the short sub 7,100-yard par 70 has five par 3s.

That led me to glance at last season's Par 3 Scoring charts where I spotted a player already on my shortlist for this week.

Tom Hoge ranked 4th for Par 3s last season, one which brought him victory at Pebble Beach.

He showed his quality with a top 10 at tree-lined Southern Hills in the US PGA Championship and, after a fourth at the 3M Open, rounded off his best ever campaign with a top five in the Tour Championship.

The latter is significant as East Lake has the same combination of grasses as Narashino: Zoyzia fairways and Bentgrass greens.

What really brings him sharply into focus is his start to the new season.

Hoge opened with 12th at the Fortinet (tight and tree-lined) and then closed 65-64 on the weekend in Las Vegas last week to finish in the top four.

He putted well in both events and at the Shriners he was 2nd for SG: Approach, 4th Tee To Green and 14th Off The Tee.

Hoge also got a look at this course last year and after opening with a 2-over 72, he shot 66-69 over the final 36 holes to post a respectable tied 17th.

On current form, we can expect better than that so the improving 33-year-old American is worth a punt.

Talking in Vegas last Thursday, he said: "Last couple weeks we went down to Mexico, down to Cabo, did a little fishing down there and kind of put the clubs away a little bit.

"It was a bit longer of a break than I'd normally take, but I'll be fresh for this last push at the end of the year.

"I've played well in the fall in the past. I feel like there's a lot of good golf courses that set up well for me in the fall.

"That's one of the reasons why I'm playing a lot this year still. I feel like I could get off to a nice start in the FedExCup."

It's working out that way too. He currently sits 12th and hopefully Hoge will take a big leap here.

Final Bet: Si-Woo Kim each-way @ 29.028/1

Si-Woo Kim was last week's headline tip in Las Vegas and he rallied on the back nine on Sunday to finish tied eighth and secure some each-way returns.

That added to his strong display in the Presidents Cup where he finished as top points scorer for the International Team after banking three wins from four matches.

Prior to the Presidents Cup, Kim had popped over to Japan to contest the Shinhan Donghae Open and opened with a pair of 65s before finishing fifth.

He's also played this event twice and seems to be cracking the code.

In 2019, Kim opened with a 5-over 76 but recovered well with laps of 67-66-69 to take 37th.

And last year a more solid display over the four days gave him 18th place.

In Las Vegas last time he ranked 2nd for Putting Average while he was 9th for PA at the Shinhan Donghae Open so he's rolling it well on the greens and should enjoy these well-manicured surfaces.

We have some useful correlating course form too such as a win at Sedgfield, a second in the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town and top 10s at Firestone and East Lake.

After being overshadowed by their female counterparts for so long, the male Korean golfers are really taking flight at the moment and spurring each other on.

So after Tom Kim's win in Vegas, hopefully Si-Woo can add to their success here.

Xander Schauffele, who won Olympic golf in Japan in 2021, heads the market at 8/1, with Sungjae Im next best at 11/1 ahead of Hideki Matsuyama at 12s.

Given the limited field and lack of superstar names, it's easy to argue that Collin Morikawa at 14s and Viktor Hovland at 18s are a touch of value compared to some of those around them.

But I'll look a little further down the lists and go with a trio of Hatton, Hoge and Si-Woo Kim.