DID you see that ticket prices for the 2025 Ryder Cup were announced last week? An absolute snip at $750. That’s a day, by the way, not for the week. Add in the need to find a hotel in New York (never cheap), plus a flight out there (not quite high season, but not low either) and all sorts of travel to and from the course (eating away at the credit card), and the only conclusion is that elite level golf has discovered a bizarre circle of hell in which the European team is understandably desperate to get LIV Golf’s Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton involved inside the ropes – yet they’re also about the only people who can afford to walk outside them too.
Truly, we’re living in strange days. Not as odd as the Ryder Cup of 1983, however. That was also hosted by the Americans and, such was the dire state of the match at the time, NBC television actually mooted the idea of paying not to broadcast it. That’s right: to not cover it at all. If ever a sporting event is a phoenix that has risen from the flames, the Ryder Cup is it.
Meanwhile, we’re set for the sixth edition of the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP and its brief history has certainly been a quirky one.
The inaugural event was notable for three reasons. The first is that it was the first PGA Tour stop in Japan. The second that it was an eerie forerunner of COVID-era golf because the finale took place with no fans on the property because a storm had left it unsafe. The third was that it was almost certainly the final time we will ever see Tiger Woods claim a win.
Quite a bow, in other words and, as we all know, it’s very difficult to ride such waves. You have to have sympathy for the organisers, however, because it is almost impossible to imagine how the fates would contrive to make their follow-up a relative non-event. How so? Well, the pandemic ruled out a return to Japan so the event was moved to Sherwood Country Club in California. It had a decent field but this time there were no fans all week rather than just at the weekend to see Patrick Cantlay win.
Third time lucky?! It finally all went right. Not just back in Japan but the nation’s first-ever male major championship winner, Hideki Matsuyama, lifted the trophy. Perfect. Next up was Keegan Bradley’s first win in four years, the first of two in a 2022/3 season that seemed likely to vault him to another Ryder Cup appearance but he was snubbed. Incredibly that tale escalated quickly and, like a child stuck in the middle of an ugly divorce, he has now been handed an over-the-top make-up present in the form of captaincy at the next Ryder Cup.
Given all that drama, Collin Morikawa’s win last year had the whiff of “Meh” about it. Sure, it was his first win in two years, and he has Japanese heritage, and he carded a final round best-of-the-day-by-two 63 to turn a two-shot deficit into a six-shot win – it was still a bit “whatever”.
What can we expect this week? Well, we’re back at Narashino Country Club which is owned by a company that is a neat fit with a tournament that isn’t just fond of capital letters, it’s actually superglued the caps lock to the keyboard. ACCORDIA GOLF are those owners and Narashino has a history of finding quality winners and not only in this event – Gary Player and Seve Ballesteros have also lifted trophies there.
Each Way – Justin Thomas
The first three winners of this event at Narashino where also previous winners of the World Golf Championship Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club and it makes a lot of sense because both tracks favour golfers whose straight drives set up controlled approaches to small greens. Back in 2018 Justin Thomas won at Firestone and he fits in nicely with another Narashino/WGC link because when Rory McIlroy was asked about this Japanese test he likened it to Chapultepec which used to host the WGC Mexico Championship. Thomas played that course four times and finished top 10 on every single occasion. All four Narashino winners have been major champions, too, and Thomas is a two-time PGA Championship winner. He was also T17th in his previous course start in 2019, closing with a very neat 65.
Each Way – Rickie Fowler
We’ll add a man who nearly fits all those trends mentioned above. The major championships? Rickie Fowler is one of the great nearly men of them, finishing second three times. Firestone? He was second in 2011 (one of five top 10s at the course). And Narashino itself? He was second there in 2022. After a resurgent 2023 he’s mostly struggled in 2024 but he took time off after the Open and returned with T16th at the start of this month, his best finish since he won the Rocket Mortgage Classic last July, and was T23rd last week in Las Vegas.
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