2020 ZOZO Championship Preview
ZOZO Championship at Sherwood CC
October 22 – October 25
Sherwood Country Club | Thousand Oaks, CA
Par 72 – 7,023 Yards
Jason Kokrak (-20) was able to hold off Xander Schauffele (-18), Tyrrell Hatton (-17) and Russell Henley with a final round 64 on Sunday at the CJ Cup. Talor Gooch (-16), Joaquin Niemann (-13), Bubba Watson (-12), Lanto Griffin (-12), Sebastian Munoz (-11) and Harris English (-10) rounded out the top 10. Some solid bets (and some just-misses) at the CJ Cup hitting Russell Henley Top 5 (+1100) and Sebastian Munoz Top 10 (+700).
We have a 78 man, no-cut event again this week for the Zozo Championship which was moved to Sherwood Country Club for the west coast swing (replacing the Asian Swing). It’s a shorter, par 72 course playing just over 7,000 yards and is unique in the fact there are five par 3’s and five par 4’s. The favorites this week include five guys who played last week as well: Jon Rahm (+1000), Xander Schauffele (+1100), Justin Thomas (+1200), Rory McIlroy (+1200) and Collin Morikawa (+1800).
Former host of the World Challenge Championships at Sherwood CC, Tiger Woods (+2500), has won at this course five times and finished 2nd five times; even if that’s with an 18-man field as it was in the past. Dustin Johnson withdrew last week after testing positive for Covid so don’t expect him to be in the field this week, but Tony Finau (+2800) should be back from his Covid-related absence. Other notables playing this week include Tyrrell Hatton (+2000), Webb Simpson (+2000), Patrick Reed (+2200), Bubba Watson (+2500) and Matthew Wolff (+2800).
The Course
Sherwood Country Club | Thousand Oaks, CA
Par 72 – 7,023 Yards
Par 3’s: 198, 228, 186, 189, 166
Par 4’s: 342, 456, 422, 446, 422, 359, 455, 444
Par 5’s: 531, 531, 517, 568, 563
(Above yardages taken from 2013 Northwestern Mutual World Challenge at Sherwood)
Different type of course this week with five par 3’s and five par 5’s which means Par 5 Scoring will be a key stat again and Par 3 Scoring will mean a little more than usual. Looking at the composition of mostly short holes, you have to imagine good wedge play will be a major factor, think 100-125 yard and 125-150 yard proximity stats.
SG Tee to Green will be important as always (need good approach players this week), and accurate players can keep up with the bombers based on past tournaments(see past winners/runners-up below). With that said, past winners have still reached -20 or lower so birdie or better percentage can help find a hot putter this week.
Other notes: They will be playing on average sized bentgrass greens this week. There are a lot of sand traps at Sherwood and water will come into play on around half of the holes.
Previous Champions at Sherwood Country Club (World Challenge Championships)
2013: Zach Johnson (-13) def. Tiger Woods (Playoff)
2012: Graeme McDowell (-17) def. Keegan Bradley (-14)
2011: Tiger Woods (-10) def. Zach Johnson (-9)
2010: Graeme McDowell (-16) def. Tiger Woods (Playoff)
2009: Jim Furyk (-13) def. Graeme McDowell (-12)
2008: Vijay Singh (-11) def. Steve Stricker (-10)
2007: Tiger Woods (-22) def. Zach Johnson (-15)
2006: Tiger Woods (-16) def. Geoff Ogilvy (-12)
2005: Luke Donald (-16) def. Darren Clarke (-14)
2004: Tiger Woods (-16) def. Padraig Harrington (-14)
2003: Davis Love III (-11) def. Tiger Woods (-9)
2002: Padraig Harrington (-20) def. Tiger Woods (-8)
2001: Tiger Woods (-15) def. Vijay Singh (-12)
2000: Davis Love III (-22) def. Tiger Woods (-20)