{"id":1316013,"date":"2019-10-23T14:52:01","date_gmt":"2019-10-23T20:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/woods-spieth-mcilroy-lead-star-field-in-japan\/"},"modified":"2019-10-23T14:52:01","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T20:52:01","slug":"woods-spieth-mcilroy-lead-star-field-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/woods-spieth-mcilroy-lead-star-field-in-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"Woods, Spieth, McIlroy lead star field in Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tiger Woods of the United States walks on the 9th hole during the pro-am event of he Zozo Championship PGA Tour at Accordia Golf Narashino C.C. in Inzai, east of Tokyo, Japan, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2019. (AP Photo\/Lee Jin-man)<\/strong>
AP | AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

INZAI CITY, Japan \u2014 With a field that includes Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy, the PGA Tour\u2019s first tournament in Japan has plenty of star power.<\/p>\n

The Zozo Championship beginning Thursday will be held at the Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of Tokyo at Inzai City.<\/p>\n

It is part of three tournaments that make up the PGA Tour\u2019s Asia Swing, including the CJ Cup in South Korea won last week by Justin Thomas and the HSBC Champions in Shanghai next week.<\/p>\n

The Japan tournament, co-sanctioned with the Japan Golf Tour, is a 78-man, no-cut field with a $9.75 million purse.<\/p>\n

The weather could prove to be a factor on the weekend. Japan is bracing for two more storms heading its way a week after a typhoon devastated the country\u2019s central and northern regions. A forecast for another typhoon has been downgraded to a tropical storm.<\/p>\n

Woods last played in an official tournament in Japan in 2006 at the Dunlop Phoenix, where he lost in a playoff to Padraig Harrington. He won the Dunlop Phoenix the two previous years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a lot of fun to be back here in front of fans that really understand and respect the game of golf,\u201d Woods said in a pre-tournament interview. \u201cThe game of golf is so strong here in Japan, and to have seen it grow like it has over 20-some odd years that I\u2019ve been playing is very special.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Masters champion is making his first start in his 23rd season on the PGA Tour, needing one victory to reach 82 wins and tie the career record held by Sam Snead.<\/p>\n

Woods had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee two months ago \u2014 his fifth on the same problem spot.<\/p>\n

He played in the inaugural \u201cThe Challenge: Japan Skins\u201d game on Monday at the same course and did not appear to be in any discomfort.<\/p>\n

Jason Day, who beat Woods in the Skins game, is also part of the field as well as Japanese star Hideki Matsuyama and Thomas, whose win in the CJ Cup was his 11th PGA Tour event and his second in South Korea.<\/p>\n

After his win in South Korea, Thomas now has two more wins over the last three seasons in Asia than any other player on tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something about Asia,\u201d Thomas said Wednesday. \u201cI seem to do pretty well over here. I don\u2019t really know what it is. It\u2019s always a good time of year for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy, who is playing in Japan for the first time in 11 years, said he wasn\u2019t concerned about playing on an unfamiliar course.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s OK. I mean, I\u2019ve won majors before by playing nine-hole practice rounds,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cSometimes when you don\u2019t know a course, that\u2019s a better thing. You don\u2019t know where the trouble is and it doesn\u2019t enter your mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is an agreement in place to hold the Zozo Championship until at least 2025.<\/p>\n

The tournament sponsor has drawn a great deal of attention in the relatively conservative Japanese business world.<\/p>\n

Zozo chief executive Yusaku Maezawao, owner of the online Japanese retailer, is known for lavish spending on artworks, a Stradivarius violin and a future trip to the moon.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tiger Woods of the United States walks on the 9th hole during the pro-am event of he Zozo Championship PGA Tour at Accordia Golf Narashino C.C. in Inzai, east of Tokyo, Japan, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2019. (AP Photo\/Lee Jin-man)AP | AP INZAI CITY, Japan \u2014 With a field that includes Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1316013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 16:37:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1316013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316013\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1316013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1316013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1316013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}