Golf Glance: Tiger Woods defends at Zozo Championship

Field Level Media’s Golf Glance provides weekly news and storylines from each of the major North American golf tours.

LAST TOURNAMENT: The CJ Cup @ Shadow Creek (Jason Kokrak)

THIS WEEK: Zozo Championship @ Sherwood, Oct. 22-25 Sherwood Country Club, Thousand Oaks, Calif. (Par 72, 7,006 yards) Purse: $8 million (Winner: $1.44 million) Defending Champion: Tiger Woods FedEx Cup leader: Bryson DeChambeau TV: Thursday-Sunday, 5-8 p.m. ET (Golf Channel)

NOTES: Tiger Woods is competing for the first time since missing the cut at the U.S. Open. His last title came at last year’s Zozo Championship in Japan, when he claimed his 82nd career Tour win to tie Sam Snead’s all-time record. Woods won the Hero World Challenge five times at Sherwood, which held the event from 2000-13. … This year’s event was moved to Sherman Oaks due to the coronavirus pandemic. … World No. 1 Dustin Johnson will miss his second consecutive event since testing positive for COVID-19. He holds the course record at Sherwood of 61. … The 78-player field includes several notable sponsors’ exemptions, including Rickie Fowler, Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth and England’s Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose. … Collin Morikawa and Matthew Wolff will make their tournament debuts. BEST BETS: Spain’s Jon Rahm (+1000 at DraftKings) is coming off a tie for 17th at the CJ Cup and hasn’t finished worse than a tie for 23rd in his past six starts, including a win at the BMW Championship. … Xander Schauffele (+1100) has three consecutive top-five finishes but has not won an event since the year-opening Tournament of Champions in 2019. … Justin Thomas and Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy are both +1200. McIlroy has four consecutive top-25 finishes while Thomas has gone T3, T8 and T12 in his past three starts. … Hideki Matsuyama (+2800) finished runner-up last year and leads a strong contingent of Japanese players in the field. He is seeking his first win since 2017. … Wolff (+3000) went to high school just seven miles from the course.

NEXT WEEK: Bermuda Championship

LAST TOURNAMENT: KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (Sei Young Kim)

THIS WEEK: LPGA Drive On Championship — Reynolds Lake Oconee, Oct. 22-25 Reynolds Lake Oconee, Great Waters Course, Greensboro, Ga. (Par 72, 6,664 yards) Purse: $1.3 million (Winner: $195,000) Defending Champion: Inaugural event Race to the CME Globe leader: Danielle Kang TV: Thursday-Sunday, 1-4 p.m. ET (Golf Channel)

NOTES: The event was added to the schedule last month when the LPGA Tour canceled the BMW Ladies Championship in South Korea and the TOTO Japan Classic due to travel restrictions and quarantine requirements. … Six of 12 winners on the LPGA Tour this year are in the field. … Kim leads the Tour in scoring average at 68.391 and greens in regulation (79.2 percent). … Inbee Park leads the official money list at $1,066,520. … Kang is the only two-time winner on Tour this year. … The average age of winners this year is 28.69. NEXT TOURNAMENT: Pelican Women’s Championship, Nov. 19-22

LAST TOURNAMENT: Dominion Energy Charity Classic (Phil Mickelson) THIS WEEK: OFF. NEXT WEEK: TimberTech Championship, Boca Raton, Fla, Oct. 30-Nov. 1

–Field Level Media