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Baycurrent Classic Preview and Picks
Your Weekly Guide to PGA Tour Insights, Stats, and Picks
⛳ Welcome to This Week’s GolfStats Insider
Welcome back to GolfStats Insider, your top source for expert tips and insights on the next PGA Tour event. This newsletter is free, but if you want more detailed golf stats, consider a GolfStats subscription. It offers detailed performance charts, easy-to-sort history, and special formulas to help you make the best choices. If you want to improve your fantasy league or betting strategy, now's a great time to upgrade!
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🏆 Baycurrent Classic Field
This week's tournament features a field of 78 players, with 37 ranked in the top 100 of the Official World Rankings, and 14 of those in the top 50. Notable top-100 players include Xander Schauffele (#4), Collin Morikawa (#9), and Hideki Matsuyama (#17). This marks a slight decrease from last year, which saw 32 top-100 players and 8 top-50 players. Past champions in the field are Nico Echavarria (2024), Collin Morikawa (2023), and Hideki Matsuyama (2021).
📊 Data-Driven Insights for Fantasy & Betting
If you’re serious about making the best picks this week, our GolfStats tools have you covered.
Our Performance Chart ranks players by their average finish of all players at the Baycurrent Classic, helping you identify those who consistently contend.
Our GolfStats Custom Formula highlights the best performers at this event over the last five years, factoring in course history and key stats.
Our Sortable 8-Year Glance lets you track trends, breakout performances, and potential sleepers at the Baycurrent Classic.
These tools are invaluable whether you’re betting, setting a DFS lineup, or simply looking for an edge in your fantasy league. Check out the full blog post for DK fantasy advice.
⛳ A Unique Scheduling Challenge
This event presents a unique challenge within the PGA Tour schedule. While fall events typically focus on players securing their PGA Tour cards for the following year and improving their points list status, this tournament's format and location disrupt that premise. The field is limited to 78 players, including 15 Japanese players from the Japan Golf Tour, leaving 63 spots for PGA Tour members vying for top-100 or top-60 positions to qualify for events like the Sentry and Pebble Beach.
The significant travel from Mississippi to Japan, involving a lost day due to time zones, adds another layer of complexity. Although a PGA Tour charter flight was provided, players face the challenge of jet lag and learning a new course with limited preparation time. This makes predicting a winner particularly difficult, as the event's timing and logistics do not align with the typical objectives of the fall season.
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🏌️♂️ Tournament Information
The tournament is being held at Yokohama Country Club, a par 71 course stretching 7,315 yards. The course is distinctive for its configuration, featuring only three par-3s, two par-5s, and a remarkable thirteen par-4s—the highest number of par-4s on any current PGA Tour course. Ten of these par-4s are concentrated within the final eleven holes. The event has a rich history, having been played five times previously, with Tiger Woods winning the inaugural event in Japan in 2019. Due to COVID-19, the 2020 event was held in the US, but it returned to Japan in 2022. Past winners include Hideki Matsuyama (2022), Keegan Bradley (2022), Colin Morikawa (2023), and Nico Echavarria (2024).
Yokohama Country Club, founded in 1960, features East and West 18-hole layouts designed by Takeo Aiyama. The West course hosted the 1978 Japan Open, won by Seve Ballesteros, and the 2018 event. In 2015, Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw redesigned the West course, reconstructing tees and fairways and replacing double greens with single bentgrass greens equipped with sub-air systems. This week's tournament will be played on a composite course, utilizing 16 holes from the West Course, winding through natural valleys and ridges. Fifteen of the eighteen holes underwent modifications, including tree removal, in preparation for this event.
The weather will be cool for the week with a lot of rain and gusts of 40 mph on Thursday. After that, it will be partly cloudy for the final three days with winds of 10 mph.
🔑 Key Stats for Success at Yokohama CC
The Yokohama Country Club course design suggests several key statistics will be crucial for success:
Driving Distance/Accuracy: The fairways are described as generous, making it a "bombers' course." While errant drives will find trouble in the trees, the short Zoysia rough will not be very penal, giving players who miss the fairway an easier approach with wedges and shorter irons. Some shorter par-4s can be played as "driveable," offering birdie opportunities for aggressive players.
Greens in Regulation / Scrambling: The main defense of the course is its undulating bentgrass greens, many of which have false fronts. With many wedge shots expected, spin control will be critical. The greens are of average size (6,500 sq. ft.) and will run at a slower 11.5 on the Stimpmeter. The areas around the greens are mostly short grass, so chipping will be an important factor.
