Find Me A 100 Winner: Two Longshots Chanced Across Two Events At 109/1 And 119/1
Steve Rawlings has identified two longshot picks for this week’s DP World Tour and PGA Tour tournaments taking place in Korea and Japan.
- Read my Genesis Championship preview here
- Read my ZOZO Championship preview here
- Two plays at triple figure prices
We’ve had five previous editions of this week’s co-sanctioned PGA Tour event – the ZOZO Championship – and the five winners have been priced at between 14.0 and 50.0 so it’s not been a great event for longshots.
The inaugural event winner, Tiger Woods, was the biggest priced of the five and every winner since has been fairly well fancied so I’m being cautious and playing just one there – Ryo Hisatsune.
Ryo Hisatsune @ 100.0
Safely positioned at 93 in the FedEx Cup Standings, Ryo Hisatsune looks almost certain to retain his PGA Tour card at the end of the Fall Series, but he hasn’t rested on his laurels.
Instead of defending his Open de France title two weeks ago the 22-year-old Japanese elected to play in the inaugural Black Desert Championship in Utah, where he finished a respectable 25th.
His highlight of the season so far was his third placed finish at the Wyndham Championship in August but given he has improving event form figures here reading 52-12-6, he may well improve on that this week in his homeland.
Hisatsune’s career is on an upward trajectory following three victories on the Japan Challenge Tour in 2021 and his victory in France 12 months ago and a victory on the PGA Tour could well be on the cards soon.
This week’s DP World Tour event – the Genesis Championship – is a brand-new event created by the merger of two previous tournaments – the Genesis Championship on the Korean Tour and the once only staged Korea Championship on the DP World Tour – and this one may offer up the best opportunity of a longshot winner, although I’ve still only picked out one.
Andrew Wilson @ 120.0
After several decent performances, England’s Andrew Wilson is in a similar position on the Race to Dubai as Hisatsune is on the FedEx Cup Standings and at number 107 following last week’s fast finishing tied 14th in Spain, his playing privileges for next year look secured.
Having begun last week in 120th place in the standings, the 29-year-old knew he needed a good week so his bogey-free 65 on Sunday (which was the best round of the day) that moved him up 26 places on the leaderboard was a phenomenal knock – especially bearing in mind that he birdied the first three holes and so had plenty of time to get ahead of himself and mess it up.
His finish on Sunday was the fourth time he’d finished inside the top 14 since the end of June following a 10th paced finish in the Italian Open, a 14th at the Danish Golf Championship and a ninth placed finish at the British Masters.
It’s been an impressive enough grind since June to get him to where he is now, and should he make it through to the weekend he’ll be in a position to freewheel.
Greens In Regulation was the key stat in last year’s Korea Championship so the fact that he’s ranked sixth, 13th, 13th and seventh for that sat on the last four occasions that he’s made it though to the weekend bodes well and he’s also got what could potentially be the favourable AM-PM draw.