The PGA Tour begins a three-week Asian swing at the CJ Cup at Nine Bridges in South Korea. This tournament is just three years old and features a smaller field of just 78 players, but a near $10 million purse attracts many big names including its previous two winners Justin Thomas (13/2) and world No. 1 Brooks Koepka (8/1), the two favorites.
Hideki Matsuyama follows at 16/1 and Tommy Fleetwood, making his first appearance at Nine Bridges, checks in at 18/1. PGA Tour young guns Viktor Hovland (20/1) and Collin Morikawa (22/1) also take part. There are also several other recent major champions in the field including Jordan Spieth (25/1), Gary Woodland (25/1), Jason Day (28/1), Sergio Garcia (28/1) and Danny Willett (30/1). Phil Mickelson (75/1) also makes an appearance here where he is trying to avoid falling out of the Official World Golf Ranking Top 50. Mickelson has been ranked in the Top 50 since November 1993, a streak of 1,351 weeks.
The plays
Marc Leishman (30/1): Leishman finished third last time out at the Safeway Open, shooting 67-65 on the weekend. He lost in the playoff to Justin Thomas in the inaugural edition of the CJ Cup.
Tyrrell Hatton (40/1): He’s capable of going low here as scores of 68-66 on the weekend last year indicated. Hatton is slowly regaining his form with top 20s in his last two starts, and this is too high a price in such a small field.
Ian Poulter (50/1): He has two top-15 finishes (15th in 2017, 10th in 2018) in this event’s short history and always has played well over his career in Asia. Poulter has wins in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and a WGC event in China to his credit.