ZOZO Championship Preview

The PGA Tour sticks to the West Coast but shifts south to Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif., for the latest edition of the Zozo Championship. The Zozo is the second of two events that have been relocated from Asia for the Tour, and it follows up nicely from Jason Kokrak’s win at the CJ Cup at Shadow Creek recently. 

This event again showcases an elite 78-man field, including the likes of defending champion Tiger Woods. Woods has dominated here, winning five times at Sherwood, so he will be interesting to watch. 

Dunkel Index For Zozo Championship 

The Dunkel Index is showing these top 10 golfers that could win this event. These 10 are:

• Xander Schauffele -3.269
• Jon Rahm -5.202
• Webb Simpson -5.400
• Tyrrell Hatton -5.918
• Jason Kokrak -6.018
• Justin Thomas -6.038
• Tony Finau -6.961
• Patrick Cantalay -7.349
• Daniel Berger -9.118
• Kevin Kisner -9.714

Golfers That Could Win 

Tiger Woods -11.300

Woods is returning to play for the first time since he missed the cut at the U.S. Open. He will be defending his tournament title at a different course since the 2019 event was played in Japan.

There are only a few golfers in the field who have any professional experience at Sherwood Country Club. Woods leads the pack in that small group. He has been able to average 3.68 strokes gained per round on the field across 32 career rounds here. 

Webb Simpson -5.400

Simpson arguably has a much better chance to win here than some other markets imply. He certainly has the potential to be very close to the top of the leaderboard on Sunday. 

He arrives at this week’s event ranked third in strokes gained around the green (1.117), seventh in scoring average (68.336) and 18th for one-putt percentage (45.14). This makes him a very solid value pick for the 2020 Zozo Championship.

Justin Thomas -6.308

Thomas continually performs well at Jack Nicklaus courses. He has a top five finish at the Memorial Tournament in 2017 and a second-place finish at the Workday Charity Open this past season. 

So one has to put the two together and imagine that he would perform well again at another type of course such as Sherwood. 

Xander Schauffele -3.269

Schauffele came close to winning in Vegas, but his level of play has brought him to his third consecutive top five finish and his 10th consecutive top 25. He led the Tour in par-5 scoring last year, and there are five of those this week, which should benefit his level of play. 

Winner Of Zozo: Xander Schauffele

With just one start left on the schedule for Schauffele, he has a great shot at being within striking distance at Sherwood on Sunday. Then, he can set his sights on an even bigger event: The Masters. 

Here are the complete ratings for this week’s event. Player ratings are based on prior performance.