A long winning drought was broken on Sunday at the Zozo Championship in Japan, but perhaps not the one everyone was expecting. Rickie Fowler came into the final round leading and looking for his first victory since the 2019 Phoenix Open, but he was clipped in the end by a single stroke by Keegan Bradley, who had experienced an even longer time between wins with his last victory coming at the 2018 BMW Championship.

Bradley shot a 2-under 68, which was two better than Fowler and good enough to finish at 15 under, one ahead of Rickie, the man with home he was playing. It was a bit of a ride for both players as they sought to break streaks they never wished to start. Fowler shot his worst round of the week — a 70 — and never could get rolling at Narashino Country Club after shining for the first two days. Bradley nursed a lead coming down the back stretch but kicked it away with bogeys at Nos. 14 and 16, the latter on account of a shank coming out of a bunker.

He buried a birdie on No. 17 to retake the lead, however, and maintained it with a par at the final hole. The result?

“I’ve been crying since I finished,” said Bradley after winning for the fifth time on the PGA Tour. “I can’t remember the last time I cried. I talked to my wife on the phone a second ago, FaceTime. I can’t keep it together, I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

There’s nothing wrong with Bradley, age 36, of course. It’s just that as you get older and actually understand how difficult it is to win on the toughest tour in the world, the victories start to mean more. Bradley won a lot early on, but he has just two wins since 2012. This victory moves him into the top 25 in the Official World Golf Rankings and ostensibly into some conversations of which he wants to be a part.

“It means a lot,” said Bradley. “There’s a lot of hard work that goes into it. Even if you play perfectly, doesn’t mean you’re going to win. But for me, I feel like I should be contending for tournaments, I want to be contending to play on Ryder Cup, Presidents Cups teams, majors. You know, this is going to go a long way. I haven’t really … of my five, I haven’t really won that many leading the entire day like I did today, and I really learned a lot and I think I can take a lot of that going forward the rest of the year.”

I don’t know if Bradley is going to be in the mix for next year’s U.S. Ryder Cup team in Rome. What I do know is that he’s an overlooked and probably underrated player on the PGA Tour. His ball-striking is world class, and if he can figure out how to return to being an above-average putter like he was a the beginning of his career, he will legitimately be in the conversation for the Ryder Cup and probably go fewer than eight years between major top 10s like he did from 2014 to 2022.

Regardless, this is one to celebrate. Bradley said he’s going out in Japan tonight and planning on catching the New England Patriots game at 2 a.m. local time. Who can blame him after breaking a four-year drought? The older you get the more precious those victories become. Grade: A+

Here are the rest of our grades for the 2022 Zozo Championship.

T2. Rickie Fowler (-14): I’m not sure the average fan knows just how in the desert Fowler has been over the last three years. Here’s a quick and non-exhaustive sampling:

• Three top 10s in the last 30 months
• Ranked behind Marcus Helligkilde and Kaito Onishi in the OWGR
• Missed three majors in 2022
• 0 SG player (basically PGA Tour average) for two years

All that to say it was awesome to see him back in the mix in Japen after such a difficult run for such a long time. There’s a catch, though. We saw this last fall when he nearly won the CJ Cup. Nothing materialized from that this year (he didn’t have a single top 20 in 2022 anywhere until September), so hopefully this resurgence will play out differently. Grade: A

“It’s just finally in a position where we’re building momentum and building more confidence,” said Fowler. “I feel like in the last few years there would be times where kind of take a step forward and just was never really able to build more momentum than for one week at a time. In a great spot and finally in a position where things are starting to kind of snowball and head in the right direction all together.”

T9. Xander Schauffele (-10): It wasn’t enough, but Schauffele nearly shot the round of the day on Sunday with a 5-under 65. That 65 was a reminder of this completely absurd stat.

Schauffele low-key rode a heater into the end of the 2021-22 season, and he’s picking up where he left off. In his last 11 tournaments last season, he finished in the top 20 a whopping 10 times, finished in the top five six times and won three of them (including a team championship with Patrick Cantlay). He’s on another level. Grade: A-

T45. Collin Morikawa (-2) and T53. Cameron Young (-1): Two Presidents Cup players went to Japan and couldn’t crack the top 40, which is disappointing. Both of these guys are on a bit of “wait, are we sure they’re going to be on next year’s Ryder Cup team?” watch. While both are terrific players — and Morikawa an accomplished winner — both can also be streaky, which can certainly be a good thing but often can also lead to some pretty sub-par results like these. Grade: D

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Japanese Golf

Following the recent success of Hideki Matsuyama at the 2021 US Masters in Augusta, we look at the popularity of golf in Japan and at some of the country’s best-rated golf courses.

• Population = 126.3m
• No. of golf courses = Approx. 2,500
• Pro Golfers = 5K+
• Golf Participation = 9.3m golfers
• Average cost of 18 holes = £66

Golf in Japan – The History

Golf in Japan dates back as far as the early 1900’s when it is said that a group of British ex-pats established the game of golf at The Kobe Golf Club in Japan. 

Led by Arthur Hasketh Groom, the first nine-hole course was opened in May 1903, but the course was expanded to eighteen holes within 12 months.

Later, in 1913, the Tokyo Golf club at Komazawa was opened, catering to the native Japanese golfers. However, it was not until 1924 that the Japan Golf Association was born. 

As the game took hold, more and more courses were built, but this was hampered by the depression of the 1930’s and the growing Anti-western feeling in the country in the 1930’s and 40’s.

By the time the USA declared war on Japan (following the attacks on Pearl Harbour), there were still only 23 courses established, many of which were requisitioned for military use or returned to agricultural production.

Japanese golfers who played in the 1935 U.S. Open, clockwise, from left: Rokuzo Asami, Haruo “Jack” Yasuda, Tomekichi “Tommy” Miyamoto, Kanekichi Nakamura, Seiha “Chick” Chin, Yutaka Januma (manager) and Toichiro “Torchy” Toda. (USGA Museum). Image courtesy of www.pgatour.com

As things returned to normal in the post war period, Japan started building courses again and by the mid 1950’s there were more courses in play.

Some years later, Japan saw its first golfer make his name in the Professional game when in 1957 Torakichi Nakamura and Koichi Ono won the Canada Cup (now World Cup) in Japan, an event that is considered the starting gun for Japan falling in love with the game.

By 1964, there were said to be over 400+ courses and by the early 1970s, there were over 1,000 courses. This trend continued over the next three decades and by 2009 there were reportedly over 2,400 courses, second only to the UK and the United States.

Golf in Japan – The Players

Matsuyama was the first Japanese player (and first Asian) to win a World Golf Championships event and right now, the game is considered to be one of the most popular sports in the country.

In addition, whilst the countries’ number of golf professionals has grown exponentially in recent years, no one male golfer had won a ‘Major’ but with Matsuyama’s win, golf in Japan is expecting a golden age over the next decade.

However, whilst he might have been the first male winner of a major championship, the women golfers in Japan actually led the way with major victories. The first being as far back as 1977 with Chako Huguchi at the LPGA Championship but more recently for Hinako Shibuno at the British Open in 2019.

So, while Matsuyama may have broken through the glass ceiling in the Mens’ game, it is worth noting the other male trailblazers in the game, who should also be thanked for golf’s rise to prominence over the last few years.

Hideki Matsuyama – Image courtesy of www.pgatour.com

Other established Japanese Tour Golfers

Masashi Ozaki – 94 wins

Isao Aoki – 51 wins

T. Nakajima – 48 wins

Naomichi Ozaki – 32 wins

Shingo Katayama – 31 wins

Golf in Japan – The Courses…

With so many golf courses and golf ranges to choose from, we took a quick look at which are considered Japan’s most prestigious and best golf courses. Top 5 golf courses in Japan (List courtesy of Top100 Golf Courses)…

1. Hirono Golf Club – top100golfcourses.com/golf-course/hirono
2. Kawana Golf Resort – top100golfcourses.com/golf-course/kawana-fuji
3. Naruo Golf Club – top100golfcourses.com/golf-course/naruo
4. Tokyo Golf Club – top100golfcourses.com/golf-course/tokyo
5. Yokohama GC – top100golfcourses.com/golf-course/yokohama-west

Image courtesy of PXG.com

Golf in Japan – The Future…

Matsuyama’s win at The US Masters looks set to spark a golf boom in Japan which could see more and more PGA golfers winning on both the US and European tours.

Whilst the sport is considered ‘expensive’, with so many golf ranges and shorter courses being built, we could see Japan’s golfers making more Major wins in the coming years. 

We believe this can only be good for the global game.

Speaking after his US Masters 2021 win, Matsuyama said…

“Hopefully I will be a pioneer and hopefully many other Japanese players will follow. I am glad to be able to open the floodgates and many more will follow me.”

Matsuyama’s Caddie Shota Hayafuji – Image courtesy of CBS Sports

Furthermore, with the country having a reputation for its strict application of the rules and etiquette – did you see Matsuyama’s Caddie give a ‘nod’ to the course following his ‘Boss’ making the final putt on 18 at Augusta National to take the ‘Green Jacket’ – not only did this show complete respect for both his employer and the course but the ultimate respect for the game!

By Ian Mullins

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