Baycurrent Classic: The Punter's Preview

• Accuracy likely to be key at the new venue

• History suggests a low scores and a classy winner

• Read my Open de Espana preview here

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What happened last week? Ryders Cuppers finish one-two in Scotland

Just one week after the European's Ryder Cup victory at Bethpage Black, pre-event 16/117.00 chance, Robert MacIntyre, cruised to a four-stroke victory at the Alfred Dunhill Links Pro-Am over the three-time winner, defending champ, and fellow Ryder Cupper, Tyrrell Hatton.

MacIntyre was matched at a high of 34.033/1 during the opening round but when the event was reduced to 54 holes on Saturday due to the poor weather, he was tied for the lead with Richard Sterne with 18 to play and trading at 2.727/4.

My 280.0279/1 Find Me a 100 Winner fancy, Jacob Skov Olesen, was within two of the lead with a round top play and he was matched at a low of 11.010/1, but Macintyre birdied four of his first seven holes around St Andrews and the result was never in doubt after that.

Following victories by Matt Fitzpatrick and Hatton in 2023 and '24, Macintyre is the third well-fancied winner of the event in-a-row.

Over on the PGA Tour, Garrick Higgo led the Sanderson Farms Championship by two with 18 to play and he was trading at around even money to win his third PGA Tour title, but the gap was cut to one by the turn and Higgo was trailing the pre-event 110.0109/1 chance, Steven Fisk, by two after 11 holes after the South African had bogeyed 10 and 11 and Fisk had birdied 11.

To his credit, Higgo, who was matched at a low of 1.625/8, fought back tenaciously with four birdies in-a-row from the 13^th but Matt Cooper's 6.611/2 in-play pick, Fisk, was unrelenting, and he birdied the last three holes to win by two.

This has been a good event for first time winners on the PGA Tour, outsiders, Korn Ferry graduates, and players from the southern states, so Fisk fitted the mould perfectly.

Going off at a triple-figure price, Fisk was the ninth winner in 14 years to get off the mark on the PGA Tour in the tournament, he'd graduated from the Korn Ferry Tour last year, and he's from Stockbridge, Georgia, so he was certainly a gettable pick.

"Self belief. Grit. I know I'm good enough."

Steven Fisk gets emotional after his first TOUR victory pic.twitter.com/PjM7j3LNHZ

-- PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 5, 2025

As for this event, I may have a long-shot pick for the Find Me a 100 Winner column later today or tomorrow and I'll probably get involved in-running once I've seen how the event shapes up, so look out for the In-Play Column, but nobody under 100/1101.00 is catching my attention before the off given how tricky the tournament is to assess.  

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Tournament History

This is the only the seventh staging of the Baycurrent Classic, formerly known as the ZOZO Championship, an event co-sanctioned between the PGA Tour and the Japan Tour.

Tiger Woods won the inaugural edition (his 82^nd and last victory) but due to the pandemic, the 2020 edition was staged at the Sherwood Country Club in California.

We returned to Japan four years ago to witness a facile victory for the home hero, Hideki Matsuyama, and Keegan Bradley, Collin Morikawa and Chile's Nico Echavarria have won the last three editions but we're off to a new venue this year - the Yokohama Country Club.

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Venue

Yokohama Country Club, Yokohama, Japan

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Course Details

There are two courses at Yokohama - the East and the West - and this week's layout is a composite of the two, using 16 holes from the West Course and two from the East.

The West Course was originally designed by Takeo Aiyama, the club's founding chairman, but between 2014 and 2016, it was modernized through renovations by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw.

Coore and Crenshaw are quoted as saying this about the course post renovation.

"We at Coore & Crenshaw have great respect for classic golf courses that have long contributed to establishing the traditions of the game.

We believe that the late Chairman Takeo Aiyama and his colleagues created something very special, designing a golf course that made use of the natural valleys, ridges, and vegetation of the land, resulting in a layout that is both wonderful and unique.

Our task was to maintain the original features created by Chairman Aiyama and his associates, while also adapting the course to match the modern game of golf--making it both interesting and challenging for the world's most accomplished players, and above all, ensuring that Club members could continue to enjoy playing as much as before, if not more.

We are proud of the finished work on the West Course renovation through this project, and deeply honoured to have become a part of its history, as well as part of the Club's vision for golf in Japan."

Information about the layout is relatively scarce at this stage but the clip below provides a good feel for the course.

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Weather Forecast

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TV Coverage

Live on Sky Sports all four days, starting at 4:00 on Thursday morning in the UK.

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First seven Winners with Pre-event Exchange Prices

2019 - Tiger Woods -19 50.049/1
2020 - Patrick Cantlay -23 44.043/1 (Sherwood CC)
2021 - Hideki Matsuyama -15 14.013/1
2022 - Keegan Bradley -15 36.035/1
2023 - Collin Morikawa -14 16.015/1
2024 - Nico Echavarria -20 400.0399/1

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What Will it Take to Win the Baycurrent Classic?

Having had five of the first six editions staged at the Narashino Country Club, we were building up a nice bank of course knowledge so it's a little frustrating to move venues this time around and we're obviously in the dark as to what sort of player is likely to prosper but looking at the video above, Driving Accuracy is likely to be a key metric.

Like the previous venue, Yokohama is tree-lined and visually, it appears a bit tighter all round.

Indiscriminately bombing off the tee isn't going to work so the PGA Tour's Driving Accuracy stats here is a sensible place to start.

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Previous tournaments at Yokohama

The Japan Open, won by Yuki Inamori, was staged around the West Course in 2018, soon after the renovation by Coole and Crenshaw, and Yokohama also staged the 2023 and 2024 editions of the Yokohama Minato Championship on the Japan Tour, won two years ago by a player familiar to DP World Tour fans,  Keita Nakajima, and last year by Yonezawa Ren.

Inamori won with a 270 (-14) total, and Nakajima won with a total of 271 (-13) but last year's course winner, Ren, amassed a total of 22-under-par, suggesting the layout is gettable in benign conditions.

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Other Coole and Crenshaw designs on the PGA Tour

Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw were responsible for the Plantation Course at Kapalua in Hawaii which hosts The Sentry every January and they also renovated Pinehurst No.2 in 2011 prior to last year's US Open won in dramatic fashion by Bryson DeChambeau.  

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Is There an Angle In?

The cream rose to the top in the first five editions.

Patrick Cantlay won at Sherwood and the first four winners at Narashino CC were all major champions. And had Justin Thomas prevailed 12 months ago (traded at odds-on), all five winners there would have been major winners.

Prior to 12 months ago, Tiger Woods, who was a 50.049/1 shot in the inaugural edition, had been the longest priced winner but Echavarria was a huge outsider last year, although he wasn't entirely unfancied.

The Chilian was matched at as high as 580.0579/1 early on before going off at 400.0399/1.

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In-Play Tactics

With only three results to go on, we don't really have a big enough sample size to draw too many conclusions but for what it's worth, all three course winners were sitting first of second with 18 to play and all three were within four strokes after round one so concentrating on the leaders from early on may make sense.

Nakajima trailed by six in a tie for 10^th at halfway two years ago before rounds of 67 and 66 saw him win by a stroke and the other two course winners sat second (trailing by one) and fourth (trailing by two) at halfway.

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Now read Dave Tindall's Baycurrent Classic tips and preview

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