Photo by Thomas Ward/CC0
Much to the excitement of golf fans, in October Japan will host what is expected to be one of the most entertaining face-offs of the year. The inaugural ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP week will start strong with a skins exhibition game between Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day, and Hideki Matsuyama. The event will take place in the Japanese town of Chiba at the Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club. If you can’t make it on time to watch it in person, worry not. The clash of golf titans named “The Challenge: Japan Skins” will be streamed worldwide and begins at 01:00 p.m. local time on October 21. It will be free to watch on GOLFTV after registration, except for viewers in the UK and Ireland who will have to subscribe because of additional rights deals.
For those not familiar with the skins format, during the game each hole is assigned a monetary prize. The player who wins the hole outright (aka, wins the skin) gets the money; otherwise, the money carries to the next hole. The winner of the event is the player who wins the most money. During The Challenge: Japan Skins the golfers will play 72 holes for a total purse of $350,000, with the last hole worth $100,000. This format was actually part of the PGA Tour’s unofficial schedule and ran after the season’s end from 1983 until 2008.
All four players sound excited about the event, with GOLFTV owner Discovery quoting Woods saying he “can’t wait to play against them on a global stage”; McIlroy commenting “the motivation is certainly there for me”; Day saying “I can’t wait to get out there”; and Matsuyama commenting “It’s a real honor for me to play with these guys in front of a home crowd.”
Alex Kaplan, President and General Manager of Discovery Golf, also praised the event, saying: “On October 21, fans will be able to see a totally new competition join the golf calendar, supporting some fantastic charities and showcasing the very best golf has to offer in the most fun, exhilarating and unpredictable way.”
Tiger Woods actually has experience with the discontinued PGA TOUR Skins Games having participated four times, albeit never winning. Former World #1 Fred Couples was the king of these events winning five of them and 77 skins throughout his participation.
As of the latest news around the four star players, the first public golf course designed by Woods is scheduled to open in the first half of next year. McIlroy finished in top 10 at the European Tour’s BMW PGA Championship held at the Wentworth Club, in Surrey, England. Matsuyama will begin the official season at Safeway Open organized at the Silverado Country Club in Napa, California. Day is expected to be one of the four captain’s picks for the upcoming Presidents Cup.
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While the exhibition skins game will no doubt be excellent entertainment, the week of Oct 21 will mark another important date for Japanese golf. Among the exciting PGA TOUR events, which provide action all year long, this is the first time that one will be held in Japan. The ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP will take place October 24-27 and will debut the official presence of the PGA TOUR in the Asian country. Seventy-eight players will play 72 holes for 500 FedEx Cup points and $9.75 mln in prize money. As per the tournament’s website, the event will feature the top 60 PGA TOUR players, the top 7 from the Japanese Golf Tour Association, the top 3 from the Bridgestone Open, and eight special exemptions.
The introduction of such a high-profile event in Japan is no surprise considering the rising popularity of the game in the Land of the Rising Sun. In fact, just recently the Japanese website about real estate REthink Tokyo published an article about “Japan’s golf boom” that began in the 90s. “The nation ended up constructing more than 2,000 new courses between the late 80s and early 90s,” the article says, adding that after the Japanese real estate “bubble” burst many of these projects were abandoned. That said, according to the publication, all is not lost with plenty of opportunities to revive or repurpose many of the unused golf courses.
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