In this betting preview:
The finality of the FedEx Fall might be setting in very soon. Just five events remain for those who have their sights set on the top 100. The Baycurrent Classic was formerly known as The ZOZO Championship. Still contested in Japan, the PGA TOUR has crossed the Pacific and will be playing on Wednesday night!
That is not a mistake. Get your betting card and DFS lineups set this afternoon. A field of 78 players is in Yokohama, Japan. Situated just southwest of Tokyo, their host Yokohama Country Club is ranked the number one public golf facility in Japan!
Fourteen of the top 50 and 37 of the top 100 (OWGR) are in this four-round no-cut field. Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, and Hideki Matsuyama are playing alongside 14 members of the Japan Golf Tour Organization (JGTO) and four sponsor exemptions. The event has a new name, a new venue, and a lower purse. The players are competing for $8 million, and the winner receives a check for $1.44 million.
One million plus for first-place is nice, but a majority of these guys need to secure their 2026 TOUR card. A couple in the middle range would love to get inside the fall top 10 and earn those early-season signature entries. Based on the show we saw Sunday at the Sanderson, these guys are locked in for the next six weeks.
Yokohama Country Club is a 36-hole facility home to the East and West Courses. No stranger to championship golf, officials use a special routing for major events. Sixteen holes are taken from the West Course and two holes from the East layout.
The total scorecard adds up to a par 71 layout covering 7,315 yards. I suspect these folks know what they are doing, as the final 11 holes consist of 10 par 4s and one par 3. That is going to be one heck of a finish and definitely favors the best par 4 players. In the remote chance you have played Yokohama, here are the actual hole numbers and the order for the Baycurrent Classic.
- Front 9: Hole 1 (10W), Hole 2 (11W), Hole 3 (12W), Hole 4 (13W), Hole 5 (14W), Hole 6 (15W), Hole 7 (16W), Hole 8 (17W), Hole 9 (18W)
- Back 9: Hole 10 (1W), Hole 11 (4W), Hole 12 (5W), Hole 13 (6W), Hole 14 (7W), Hole 15 (8W), Hole 16 (9W), Hole 17 (17E), Hole 18 (18E)
If you don’t remember reading about Yokohama CC, it’s okay. This is the first time the newly named ZOZO has been contested here. Not just the best public course on the island, but inside Golf Digest’s ranking for the top 5 tracks in Japan. When we have a new venue, the research team has to go deep. Especially when that course is located halfway around the world!
The 83rd Japan Open was played at YCC in 2018, and the winning score was 14 under par. The strength of this field is considerably better, but I don’t see this event as a full-blown birdiefest. The course has 73 bunkers and six holes where water comes into play. Several tree-lined holes and a bunch with closely mown areas around the greens. Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw laid down their handiwork here in 2015. Those two are incredible at using the land movement under and around the green complexes.
The forecast for round one on Thursday looks wild. Too bad it will take place in the middle of the night for us. A storm system will be leaving the region on Thursday morning. In doing so, the wind forecast for noon and beyond Thursday is 20+ mph out of the northeast. With an average green size of 6,500 sq/ft, and a challenging design, picking a first-round leader might be near impossible.
Remember, this is a small field. Tee times are organized in threesomes going off from 8:45 am to 10:57 am local time. Tee it up tomorrow after 10:00 am, and you will compete in the worst conditions if this forecast holds up. Once the storm system moves out on Thursday evening, the remainder of the tournament looks dry. Temperatures will be in mid 70s, and the wind should calm down into the low teens over the weekend.
With scoring in the mid to high teens, and knowing Coore-Crenshaw’s tendencies, it will take a very well-balanced week to win. Go heavy on T2G and the flatstick. This one-off fall Japan event is about as random on the schedule as the list of past champions. Including just the overseas editions, Hideki, Keegan, Nico, Collin, and Tiger have won. All of those were played at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club. A much different design, we need a new list of comp courses to help us predict the outcome at Yokohama.
Knowing the desired skill set and course features, I like venues that allow scoring to better ball strikers. Forget TPC Craig Ranch, we are looking at TPC San Antonio, Innisbrook, TPC River Highlands, Congaree, TPC Deere Run, and I also like East Lake. Courses that force you to use the ground to score. Venues where accuracy reigns over length by at least a 60/40 ratio.
The Vegas over/under for the winning score is 19.5 under par. If any players plan to surpass that, they have 13 par 4s per round to produce sub-par scores. I’m treating this layout much like a par 70, where we commonly see 12 par 4s.
One year ago, the TOUR added the Black Desert Resort’s Championship course to the schedule, and now we have another new fall venue. I believe this setting will be super interesting. Set your DVR, and make sure you catch some/most of this tournament. You can’t blame football this weekend. Give golf a good run and I bet you’ll be richer by the time you wake up on Sunday morning!
This preview is just that: a preview. For a complete list of my betting predictions covering the Baycurrent Classic, placements, and H2H matchups, please go to Read The Line and subscribe.
Baycurrent Classic 2025 best bets
Best bet to win: Garrick Higgo +4500 on FanDuel)
We first met Higgo in 2021. Higgo won twice in three weeks on the DP World Tour in record fashion. A month later, Garrick was a PGA TOUR winner. Runner-up in Mississippi on Sunday,
Higgo’s game is seriously trending again. He finished seventh at the Procore and has gained an average of 12+ strokes on the field in his last two PGA TOUR starts. The showmanship on Sunday at the Sanderson means Garrick is uber confident.
Considering we have 78 rookies in the field for this brand new venue, I’m choosing the hottest golfer.
Best bet to place in the Top 10: Eric Cole (+500 on DraftKings)
Cole gained 4.5 strokes on the field with his iron game in Mississippi. A notorious fall leaderboard guy, he finished ninth at the Sanderson Farms on Sunday. No stranger to Japan, Cole has a sixth-place and a runner-up finish in the Baycurrent Classic. Eric’s iron game and putter are trending, so we’re tailing!
Best head-to-head bet: Max Homa over Wyndham Clarke (-105 on DraftKings)
Wyndham Clark last played in Switzerland (late August) at the Omega European Masters. He missed the cut, and the ball striking was not good. Max Homa has been playing much better into the late summer and fall. Nineteenth at the Procore and eighteenth at the Sanderson Farms, Max is trending (and playing) while we haven’t seen Wyndham in months.
Baycurrent Classic 2025 betting odds
Odds courtesy of DraftKings. Showing odds shorter than +9000.
| Golfer | Odds |
| Xander Schauffele | +1000 |
| Collin Morikawa | +1600 |
| Hideki Matsuyama | +1800 |
| Chris Gotterup | +2000 |
| Si Woo Kim | +2200 |
| Rasmus Hojgaard | +2200 |
| Kurt Kitayama | +2200 |
| Alex Noren | +2200 |
| Kevin Yu | +2800 |
| Min Woo Lee | +3000 |
| Michael Thorbjornsen | +3000 |
| Max Homa | +3500 |
| Wyndham Clark | +3500 |
| Garrick Higgo | +3500 |
| Michael Kim | +4000 |
| Christian Bezuidenhout | +4000 |
| Adam Scott | +4000 |
| Vince Whaley | +4500 |
| Rico Hoey | +4500 |
| Nicolai Hojgaard | +4500 |
| Matt Wallace | +4500 |
| Emiliano Grillo | +4500 |
| Sungjae Im | +5000 |
| Sam Stevens | +5000 |
| Patrick Fishburn | +5000 |
| Gary Woodland | +5000 |
| Byeong Hun An | +5000 |
| Max Greyserman | +5500 |
| Matt McCarty | +5500 |
| Mac Meissner | +5500 |
| Keith Mitchell | +5500 |
| Bud Cauley | +5500 |
| Billy Horschel | +5500 |
| Tom Kim | +6000 |
| Taylor Moore | +6000 |
| Ryo Hisatsune | +6000 |
| Ryan Gerard | +6000 |
| Matti Schmid | +6000 |
| Mark Hubbard | +6000 |
| Lee Hodges | +6000 |
| Kevin Roy | +6000 |
| Austin Eckroat | +6000 |
| Eric Cole | +6500 |
| Takumi Kanaya | +6500 |
| Beau Hossler | +6500 |
| Alex Smalley | +6500 |
Baycurrent Classic 2025: Yokohama Country Club course overview
If you get a chance, take a look at this golf course online. Coore and Crenshaw have done a wonderful job of creating a varied test of golf across an incredible selection of Tokyo terrain.
The first course characteristic that caught my eye was the bunkering. Now, C&C are known for their strategy when it comes to the sand. Yokohama is a true parkland golf layout; grass, sand, and a smattering of water. The penalty areas, sand and otherwise, really attract your eye and almost take it away from the real genius of this layout, the topography.
I’ll get back to the bunkers, but the landscape led to one incredible green complex after another. The subtleties in the surfaces will be the difference maker. At the risk of being redundant, good putters have an advantage on brand new venues for two reasons.
First, they read greens better than an average player. Second, they take that knowledge, adapt, and make more putts. As we come into a new venue with a majority of the field made up of middle-tier PGA TOUR pros, I’m leaning into the best flatstick aficionados.
Surrounding the green surfaces are several challenging run-offs, swales, hills, depressions, bunkers… I think you get the point. Many of these around the green areas look quite simple, but when you add in the uniqueness of the greens, short game will play a role in determining our winner.
Tonight and tomorrow’s rain will help the field hold more GIRs, but overall, I see a very complete test. Are putting and approach the first two skills I’m looking at? Yes. As we work our way away from the hole, don’t skip the green surrounds. This is why TPC San Antonio, East Lake, Congaree, etc. are great comps. The closer you get to the hole, the more challenging it gets.
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The hole pictured above is a 337-yard par 4 we see late in the round. It looks simple enough, but subtle contours will define whether or not your strategy is successful. With all of the terrain changes, a bounce here or there will definitely define your week. Get used to those jagged bunker edges. You will be seeing those all over the property.
Thirteen par 4s represent as much variety as the overall course design. While I’m on the subject of scoring, keep an eye on the best par 70 players. Why? Most par 70 scorecards have 12 par 4s. Yokohama CC has 13 of them. For this championship routing, the final par 5 comes on hole six. Eight of the 13 par 4s are under 450 yards in length. Those are scoring holes if you hit the fairway and create scoring opportunities with your iron game.
YCC has a ton of mid and scoring iron approach shots. Dial up the pitching wedge through seven iron and take dead aim. Forget who hits the most GIRs in that “range,” we’d rather know who will create the most birdie chances. The top 8 approach players at the Sanderson Farms gained over five strokes on the field.
Those players were not hitting off Zoysia fairways, but it is going to take a positive seven or eight stroke gain on approach to win. Four guaranteed rounds will promote aggressive play. The field will be firing at every flagstick. I’m focused on those players who have a very high floor on approach. A spike week would be nice, but the card is covered in players who bring a ton of talent with their iron game.
Let’s quickly go back to the 2018 Japan Open won by Yuki Inamori at 14 under par. This was a 72-hole event where only two players finished double digits under par. I realize the strength of field is far different than the Baycurrent Classic, but take a moment and scroll back up to that course picture. If you get a little wide of your target at YCC, there is going to be a penalty. The DNA of Inamori’s game is accuracy.
When it comes to your OTT acumen, we are going to favor fairways over speed. I have not seen deep Zoysia rough alongside these fairways, but don’t be misled. The approach advantage comes from the fairway. That is where players will have the best proximity average to the hole. That is my key off the tee. I believe the winner will be in the 18-20 under par range. As such, I’m not weighing bogey avoidance as an impactful measure, but rather taking that focus and placing it on weighted T2G. This is why comp venues like TPC River Highlands, TPC Deere Run, and Innisbrook make sense. Similar strength of field and penalty for going astray.
We saw some incredible T2G play in Mississippi and Napa. The fall series events require guys to go low. Our outright card exemplifies strong putters who have proven approach ability and go low on par 4s. Our strategy is simple and direct. Add in the leaderboards from several comp venues, and we have a card that will definitely contend come very early Sunday morning.
Read The Line is the leading golf betting insights service led by 5-time award-winning PGA Professional Keith Stewart. Read The Line has 42 outright wins and covers the TGL, LPGA, and PGA TOUR, raising your golf betting acumen week after week. Subscribe to Read The Line’s weekly newsletter and follow us on social media: TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter.
