Dustin Johnson takes four-shot lead into Masters final round

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The PGA TOUR heads back to Japan for the fourth iteration of the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP. Japan’s favorite modern golfing son, Hideki Matsuyama, will headline the field as he looks to defend his title from last season. Matsuyama captured the 2021 ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP by five shots. FIELD NOTES: World No. 5 Xander Schauffele is the top-ranked golfer in the field… Collin Morikawa, at No. 9, is the other member of the world’s top-10 teeing it up… Schauffele – who won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics – and Morikawa are joined by fellow U.S. Team Presidents Cup member Cameron Young, who is making his event debut (and first trip to Japan)… There’s plenty of International Team Presidents Cup flair in Japan as Sungjae Im, Tom Kim, Corey Conners, K.H. Lee, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Cam Davis, Si Woo Kim, Mito Pereira, and Sebastian Munoz are all in the field. Pereira held the 36-hole lead at the Shriners Children’s Open… Matsuyama leads the home-country contingent. The event is co-sanctioned by the Japan Golf Tour Organization (JGTO) once again for 2022 and there will be more than a dozen members of the JGTO teeing it up… Mackenzie Hughes returns to action after his win at the Sanderson Farms Championship… Sponsor’s exemptions include Matt Wallace, who finished T4 last season, along with TOUR winners Cameron Champ, Satoshi Kodaira, and Rickie Fowler… European Ryder Cup teammates Viktor Hovland (ranked No.11 in the world) and Tommy Fleetwood are also in the field. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 FedExCup points. COURSE: Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club, par 70, 7,079 yards. About 40 yards has been added to the official scorecard at the Narashino Country Club for this year’s iteration of the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP. The 36-hole facility in Chiba, Japan, was opened in 1965 and played host to a number of high-level golf events in its history before the PGA TOUR arrived in 2019. Designed by Shinya Fujita and east of Tokyo, it’s a stunning parkland layout. STORYLINES: The ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP will once again have a 78-man field, four rounds, and no cut. A full 500 FedExCup points will be awarded to the winner… Tiger Woods and Matsuyama won the two ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP events to take place in Japan, while Patrick Cantlay won the event in 2020, which was moved to Sherwood, Calif… Matsuyama is looking to successfully defend a title on the PGA TOUR for the second time (he won the WM Phoenix Open in 2016 and 2017)… Plenty of youthful Japanese firepower will be teeing it up at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP. Two Mark H. McCormack Medal winners in Keita Nakajima and Takumi Kanaya will be in the field along with 20-year-old Ryo Hisatsune, who just turned professional. 72-HOLE RECORD: 261, Tiger Woods (2019) 18-HOLE RECORD: 63, Keegan Bradley (Second round, 2019), Rory McIlroy (Third round, 2019), Hiroshi Iwata (First round, 2021), Naoto Nakanishi (Fourth round, 2021). Tournament Record: 61, Richy Werenski (Second round, 2020 at Sherwood) LAST TIME: Japan’s own Hideki Matsuyama had a flurry of a finish to win the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP last season by five shots. The Masters champion made three birdies in a five-hole stretch on his back nine Sunday – and eagled the par-5 closing hole to put a bow on the week – to top runners up Brendan Steele and Cameron Tringale. Matsuyama closed with a 65 and a 15 under total to capture a TOUR title for the seventh time. He won eight times in Japan previously, including in 2011 as an amateur, but was unable to medal at the Tokyo Olympics so this win was a measure of revenge. Matsuyama held a one-shot lead through 54 holes but that was erased by Tringale by the 10th hole Sunday, who jumped into the first-place position after back-to-back birdies on Nos 9 and 10. That’s when Matsuyama turned it on, however. Matsuyama’s closing eagle featured a beautiful fairway wood from 241 yards which nearly found the bottom of the cup for an albatross. Mackenzie Hughes, Matt Wallace, and Sebastian Munoz rounded out the top five. HOW TO FOLLOW: Television: Wednesday (into Thursday)-Thursday (into Friday): 11 p.m.-3 a.m. ET (Golf Channel). Friday (into Saturday), 10:30 p.m.-2:30 a.m. Saturday (into Sunday): 11 p.m.-3 a.m.

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Once you’ve rearranged the furniture in your living room, it can be pretty much impossible to know when to stop. The allowance to be creative breeds fresh perspective that inherently doesn’t have an endpoint, even for the disciplined. When it comes to redesigning golf courses, layers of other influences come into play, but it also requires a break, if for no other reason than it’s time to play. RELATED: Play Pick ‘Em Live | The First Look | Inside the Field When Jack Nicklaus announced that his most recent redesign of Muirfield Village Golf Club – otherwise known as the natural gathering place at his home – was his last, it doesn’t mean that he’s done molding and shaping the possibilities virtually, imaginatively. It just means that he’s given the manifestation of his process his last, best shot (which assumes that he really is done molding and shaping). In its debut last year, the latest iteration of Nicklaus’ beloved track in Dublin, Ohio, stood tall in testing PGA TOUR membership as host of the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, albeit with one curious anomaly, and likely a one-timer at that. It’s explained in the course review below. POWER RANKINGS: THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY WORKDAY Cameron Smith, Joaquin Niemann, Marc Leishman, Mito Pereira and 2018 Memorial champ Bryson DeChambeau will be among the notables reviewed in Draws and Fades. When considering the challenge of Muirfield Village over time, it’s always been a progressive experience tee to target, but it’s not as simple as classifying it as a second-shot track. While Nicklaus has conceded room to miss off the tee, the course tips at 7,533 yards, so muscle is rewarded. (Overall distance is down 10 yards because the par-5 seventh hole will play no longer than 582 yards this week.) At the same time, the most penal of the rough begins at four inches high, so respect and thoughtfulness when sizing up each hole is required. Still, the 120 entrants of this limited-field invitational need to step up and hit golf shots on approach. Bentgrass greens average just 5,000 square feet, and they’re annually the slickest surfaces outside the confines of Augusta National Golf Club. On second thought, that’s not true, at least it wasn’t last year. New greens at Muirfield Village ran 12 feet on the Stimpmeter last year. That’s a common expectation on most courses utilized by the PGA TOUR, but they were measurably slower by comparison to pre-redesign when readings of 13 feet and beyond were collected. As a result, three-putt avoidance was at an all-time low of 1.52 percent, third-lowest among all of 51 courses during the super season. (The previous record for the course was 2.21 percent in 1998. The stat has been recorded in earnest since 1992.) That dropped average putts per round by exactly 1.00 (to 27.99), and the conversion percentage inside 10 feet climbed in concert, but most other familiar measurements to define how it went were in line with history. The learning curve of the new greens served as a counterbalance. To wit, putts per greens in regulation and average distance of putts converted historically will not reflect the modifications. But now, with an additional year to mature, and with cooperative conditions, the governor can be lifted. After a blast of early summertime heat, a front bringing rain and cooler air will make its way into the region midweek. The tail end of it will be gone on some time on Thursday, so the turf should be receptive for the opening round. Dry weather is forecast thereafter, daytime highs might not touch 80 degrees and wind shouldn’t be an issue. Per the new norm, the winner will receive 550 FedExCup points, a three-season membership exemption (or one-year extension to a maximum of five seasons) and a three-year exemption into THE PLAYERS Championship. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.com’s Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous perspectives. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Draws and Fades WEDNESDAY: Pick ’Em Preview SUNDAY: Medical Extensions, Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Rookie Ranking * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.

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