Sleeper Picks: ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP @ SHERWOOD

Cameron Smith ... Sure, it feels like cheating to circle the 51st-ranked golfer in the world who advanced to the TOUR Championship in early September and has opened 2020-21 by going 3-for-3 with top 25s in his last two starts, but the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP @ SHERWOOD is limited to 78 golfers, so his position as a Sleeper is more relative than usual and he deserves the attention. If you agreed to split hairs, consider that the Aussie hasn't recorded a top 10 since hoisting the hardware at the Sony Open in Hawaii nine months ago. Joel Dahmen ... With 100 PGA TOUR starts under his belt, he's among the throng that appreciate the mountain that Jason Kokrak finally conquered at THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK on Sunday. It's rare for a first-time winner to emerge in a limited-field invitational with no cut. The last was Russell Knox at the 2015 World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions the week after Justin Thomas broke through at the now-defunct CIMB Classic. Dahmen's impressive form over time supports his inclusion on the short list of the non-winners in our crosshairs week over week. Ryo Ishikawa ... Time passes more quickly for some than for others. Even if you've been a fan of the PGA TOUR for a minute, it still might surprise you that he hasn't possess status since the 2016-17 season, the last of five consecutive with a card. It also might come as a shock that he's 29 years old and a veteran of 151 starts. Nevertheless, the once can't-miss prospect from Japan arrives having just finished T3 at the Japan Open Golf Championship with a field-low 65 in the final round. His astounding 17 victories on his home circuit include three in 2019. Takumi Kanaya ... It's not often when a PGA TOUR non-member wedges his way into this select grouping twice in six tournaments, but he's not just any PGA TOUR non-member. While he missed the cut at the U.S. Open, it's merely a matter of time before he's a fixture on the world stage. Already 218th in the Official World Golf Ranking thanks in part to a solo seventh in his professional debut at the Japan Open Golf Championship on Sunday, the 22-year-old also is a winner on the Japan Golf Tour. That title helped propel him to the top spot in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Gunn Charoenkul ... If you read my Father's Day special about how becoming a father influences performance inside the ropes, then his progression to the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP @ SHERWOOD makes sense. He learned that his wife, Koyy, was pregnant in mid-2019. She delivered the couple's first child in February of this year. In the interim and since the birth, the first-time father converted 18 top-15 finishes worldwide, including in all of his most recent eight starts. The most recent was a co-runner-up in his native Thailand two months ago. NOTE: Sleeper is a relative term, so Rob uses unofficial criteria to determine who qualifies. Each of the following usually is determined to be ineligible for this weekly staple: Winners of the tournament on the current host course; winners in the same season; recent major champions; top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking; recent participants of team competitions.

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