Out of the Rough: Baycurrent Classic (2025)

The PGA Tour’s FedExCup Fall continues on with the Tour’s lone Asian-based event with this week’s Baycurrent Classic.

Known formally as the ZOZO Championship, this season marks the seventh playing of this event. 

Each of the previous events, outside of 2020, have been played at the Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club in Inzai, Chiba, Japan.

Now, under new sponsorship of Baycurrent, the event has found a new home, being played this season for the first time at the Yokohama Country Club in Kanagawa, Japan.

Although under a new title sponsor and at a new venue, this event continues to be co-sanctioned between the PGA TOUR and the Japan Golf Tour and was first put into place in 2019 to expand the PGA TOUR’s global footprint.

Additionally, unlike what we’ve seen across the beginning of the FedExCup Fall, this week is a limited field event, seeing just 78 golfers make the field.

As previously mentioned, the Baycurrent Classic is the only PGA Tour event held on Asian soil. The now debunked WGC events once saw events played in Asia.

The Field

Although a FedExCup Fall event, this event annually draws the best field of any fall event (outside of this year’s Procore Championship in preparation for the Ryder Cup.)

World No. 4 Xander Schauffele headlines this field, as he makes his first appearance on the PGA Tour since the BMW Championship. 

Alongside Schauffele, Collin Morikawa (No. 8,) Hideki Matsuyama (No. 17) and Alex Noren (No. 18) round out golfers ranked within the top 25 of the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) teeing it up this week. 

In all, 13 members of the top-50 of the OWGR will be teeing it up this week. Along with the previous four names mentioned, Chris Gotterup, Wyndham Clark, Sungjae Im, Kurt Kitayama, Billy Horschel, Michael Kim, Max Greyserman, Min Woo Lee and Sam Stevens round out golfers ranked within the top-50 of the OWGR in this week’s field.

Nico Echavarria comes in as the defending champion, as he held off both Justin Thomas and Max Greyserman to win by a stroke a season ago.

Other former winners of this event teeing it up this week include Morikawa (2023) and Matsuyama (2021.)

The Course

The West Course at Yokohama County Club first opened in 1960 and was designed by Takeo Aiyama.

The course would more recently undergo a remodeling, spear-headed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw in 2015.

It plays as a par-71 at roughly 7,315 yards.

The 2015 remodeling focused on elevating each of the tee boxes and adding elevation to the fairways.

In true Coore and Crenshaw design, the bunkers too were addressed to make the existing natural undulations more dramatic

Additionally, the old double greens, which once was a staple at Japanese golf courses due to the different grass types needed to allow golf year round, were replaced with single greens and a sub air system was installed to cool the bentgrass greens during the summer.

The course is known for its wide fairways that are lined by dense clusters of pine trees. 

The fairways, and course as a whole, features enough elevation changes to make things challenging.

The greens this week are heavily bunkered and are surrounded by trees as well.

Notable holes on the course include the downhill par-four fourth that features a green protected by a hidden pond on the right side. What makes this hole unique however is that a lone tree stands in the center of the fairway.

The back-nine is highlighted by the par-three 12th that plays over a water hazard onto a raised green that is surrounded by bunkers on each side.

In all, the West Course at Yokohama Country club does a perfect job of balancing the original use of natural valleys and ridges into the remodeling of Coore and Crenshaw.

The Weather

As of the time of writing this, both Thursday and Friday are calling for a 35-percent chance of precipitation. Thursday is currently calling for morning showers as Friday is calling for evening showers. Saturday currently calls for a 70-percent chance of precipitation and Sunday calls for a 60-percent chance of precipitation. Temperatures will be at their highest on Thursday at 75-degrees before falling to 72-degrees on Friday and 69-degrees on Saturday before returning to 70-degress on Sunday. Winds will begin at 12 miles-per-hour on Thursday and fall to nine miles-per-hour on Friday. Winds will pick-back-up across the weekend, set for ten miles-per-hour on Saturday and 13 miles-per-hour on Sunday. 

Key Stats

• Total Driving (75-percent average driving distance / 25-percent driving accuracy percentage)

• Strokes Gained: Putting on Bentgrass (SG: PUTT Bentgrass)

• Strokes Gained: Approach (SG: APP)

• Proximity to the Hole from 175-plus Yards

• Strokes Gained: Around the Green (SG: ATG)

• Scrambling

• Sand Saves Percentage

• Birdie-or-Better Percentage

• Par-Four Average Scoring

• Par-Three Average Scoring

Betting Card

Hideki Matsuyama (+1800)

We’re seeing a limited field and the hometown favorite at these odds. Can’t argue with that. Matsuyama comes into this week first on Tour in sand saves percentage, fifth in SG: ATG, eighth in proximity to the hole from 175-plus yards, tenth in scrambling, 20th in SG: APP, 25th in par-three average scoring, 38th in birdie-or-better percentage, 49th in par-four average scoring, 130th in total driving and 137th in SG: PUTT Bermuda. We last saw Matsuyama at the BMW PGA Championship on the DP World Tour where he finished T13th. He last played the TOUR Championship on the PGA Tour where he placed all but last, finishing 29th in a field of 30. Prior to that he finished 26th at the BMW Championship, 17th at the FedEx St. Jude Championship and 19th at the Wyndham Championship. 

Michael Kim (+4000)

Although not on the PGA Tour, the last time we saw Kim was at the Open de France where he won, in a field that included the likes of Brooks Koepka, Min Woo Lee and Ryan Fox, among the best the DP World Tour has to offer. He last appeared on the PGA Tour at the BMW Championship. On the PGA Tour, Kim is currently second on Tour in sand saves percentage, 23rd in scrambling, 30th in par-four average scoring, 32nd in SG: APP, 42nd in SG: ATG, 59th in proximity to the hole from 175-plus yards, 74th in SG: PUTT Bentgrass, 106th in total driving, 148th in birdie-or-better percentage and 163rd in par-three average scoring.

Eric Cole (+7000)

This was my first click this week. Cole is currently 40th on Tour in scrambling, 41st in par-three average scoring, 45th in SG: PUTT Bermuda, 48th in sand saves percentage, 49th in SG: ATG, 58th in proximity to the hole from 175-plus yards, 67th in birdie-or-better percentage, 70th in par-four average scoring, 72nd in SG: APP and 157th in total driving. He placed ninth last week at the Sanderson Farms Championship and 43rd at the Procore Championship to kick off the FedExCup Fall. Not at the same course by any means but over the past two seasons he’s placed sixth and second in 2024 and 2023 respectively in Japan.

Kevin Roy (+7500)

Roy placed 18th last week at the Sanderson Farms Championship and missed the cut at the Procore Championship to kickoff the FedExCup Fall. He is currently third on Tour in par-three average scoring, 16th in proximity to the hole from 175-plus yards, 31st in SG: PUTT Bermuda, 33rd in birdie-or-better percentage, 34th in total driving, 45th in scrambling, 71st in SG: ATG, 89th in SG: APP and 111th in sand saves percentage.