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The man from Japan occupies to the top spot on the leaderboard. No, not Hideki Matsuyama, but Hiroshi Iwata. Gaining entry into the field courtesy of Kevin Na backing out of the tournament earlier in the week, the 40-year-old is taking clear advantage of his opportunity.
Hardly a household name here in the United States, Iwata has been enjoying a great season on the Japan Golf Tour Organization. Making the cut in his last 10 outings, Iwata has five top-10 finishes in this span. Winning The Crowns by three-strokes in May, Iwata collected his third career JGTO title.
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While some may be surprised about his fast start, perhaps they shouldn’t be as Iwata was the first-round leader in the Japan Open Golf Championship. Yet again opening with a 63, Iwata has captured the early lead at Narashino Country Club.
However, close behind are a couple players many fancied coming into the week. Both Joaquin Niemann and Matsuyama turned in rounds of 6-under 64. Getting around Narashino CC in a bogey-free fashion, the duo may not occupy the top of the leaderboard, but they certainly occupy the top of the odds board at PointsBet Sportsbook.
With Matsuyama as a slight favorite over Niemann, the two have created some distance between themselves and the rest of the field. However, as we all know, 54-holes are yet to be played and anything can happen during this period of time.
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Updated Odds to Win (Odds Via PointsBet):
+225: Hideki Matsuyama
+450: Joaquin Niemann
+1400: Matt Wallace, Tommy Fleetwood
+2000: Jhonattan Vegas, Xander Schauffele
+2200: Cameron Tringale
+2800: Brendan Steele, Hiroshi Iwata
+3000: Will Zalatoris
+3300: Alex Noren, Collin Morikawa, Matt Jones
+4000: Carlos Ortiz
+5000: Adam Schenk, Erik van Rooyen, Harry Higgs, Si Woo Kim
Round 2 Plays (Odds Via PointsBet):
Collin Morikawa (+3300 to win):
Clearly, we have our work cut out for us with the lack of statistics for the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP. While strokes gained data is not available this week, we are lucky to have elementary data, such as driving accuracy and greens in regulation.
And while this is typically a spot where I write up a couple three-balls I may like for the second round, I can’t help but look at this field and think “Outside of Matsuyama and Niemann, who is there to be afraid of?” Having gone light in the outright department pre-tournament, I will look for Morikawa to make a charge over the next 54-holes.
Hitting 14 of 18 greens in regulation in Round 1, the 24-year-old got off to a poor start, much like Tiger Woods did in 2019. Making three bogeys in his opening four holes, he battled back, carding a 1-over 71 to sit eight-strokes behind the current lead and seven-strokes behind the duo at the top of the odds board.
While we can broadly assume the iron-play was solid for Morikawa, the driver and putter were not. Finding the short grass at a 53.85 percent clip, the two-time major winner will have to split fairways with more regularity from here on out. He also must find his touch on the greens as he needed 1.93 putts per green in regulation – 34 in total given the 27 plus seven more based on his 25.00 percent scrambling rate in Round 1.
Seventh in Round 2 scoring average last season and 11th the year before, I expect this gap to narrow by the time I wake up tomorrow morning. If those at the top stall, Morikawa should find himself within arm’s reach heading into the thick of the tournament.
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