The PGA TOUR is back in Japan, but it’s a little different this time around.
For starters, it’s no longer the ZOZO Championship, but the Baycurrent Classic. And it’s not being hosted at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club; it’ll be played at Yokohama Country Club.
To be honest, heading into the week, I’d never even heard of this place before. It’s a par-71 track that measures just over 7,300 yards on the scorecard. There are three par 3s, two par 5s (both on the front nine), and 13 par 4s. Pretty unique layout, and it will prioritize iron play with all those par 4s.
Since there’s not a lot of info out there about Yokohama, I dove into some of the transcripts from player press conferences to learn a little something.
“Course conditions, very mint, it’s very nice,” Xander Schauffele said. “Hopefully the typhoon doesn’t come in too strong with rain and wind. But yeah, the course is in great shape for the tournament.”
Admittedly, typhoons and golf don’t necessarily go together, so hopefully we don’t see it impact play too much this week.
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“It’s honestly an incredible golf course,” Collin Morikawa said. “The greens are some of the best greens I think we’ve played on on Tour, and just the way the design of the golf course with a lot of bowl greens, sloped edges, it makes the green complexes a lot smaller than what we see…so it’ll be a great test.”
Hearing those kinds of comments from two of the best players in the world got me a little more prepared for some long nights watching golf—don’t forget, coverage starts Wednesday night at 11 p.m. ET.
Finally, here’s what defending champion Nico Echavarria had to say about Yokohama.
“This is a beautiful place and very excited to come back to a great country where golf—where everyone is so passionate about this sport…It’s going to be interesting tomorrow with expected high winds, the course is going to play tough,” Echavarria said.
“With no wind, I think this course can be somewhat gettable,” he continued. “There’s a variety of very hard holes and easy holes, some reachable par 5s in the front. But overall, the course is in great shape. The greens are rolling very nicely, firm fairways. It just requires a lot of precision with the second shots, the greens are quite small. Off the tee it gives you some room. Yeah, I like the course, I like the challenge and it’s going to be a great week.”
Related: Max Homa, You Have Our Attention in Japan
On top of Morikawa and Schauffele, other big names like Hideki Matsuyama, Max Homa, Tom Kim, Min Woo Lee, and Wyndham Clark, also made the trip.
It should be a fun week in the Land of the Rising Sun—just be prepared for some late nights.
