ISPS Handa Championship
The course:
After an extended break (which included the DPWT moving the Korean event to the end of the year) we are back to Asian Swing with a trip to the Taiheiyo Club in Shizuoka, Japan!
This is the first time this course is being used for a DPWT event1, but this course has been a fixture on the Japanese Tour where it has hosted the Mitsui Sumitomo Visa Taiheiyo Masters since 1977! The Shunsuke Kato-designed Gotemba course plays to a par 70 across 7,260 yards.
Based on my research, this course was a fairly gettable Par 72, but during a course refresh (assisted by Hideki Maatsuyama) a few years ago they changed the 6th and 11th holes to from Par 5’s to Par 4’s.
Based on what I can find from the Japan Tour events (admittedly scant), it appears that this course is oddly similar to what we just saw in Hilton Head in certain ways where we have a parkland style course with tight shots around tree lined fairways, well place water, interesting bunkering, and a course where hitting greens in regulation will be paramount, which should be helped by the weather as the Sam Champion in me seems to say that it is supposed to rain pretty heavily pre-event, with a couple scatters showers possibly popping up during the course of the 4 rounds.
This course is known for its stunning views of Mount Fuji (see the picture at the title of this post).
Prior results:
2023 - Lucas Herbert won his 3rd and most recent DPWT event when he beat Aaron Cockerill in a playoff after both shot -15.
2022 - Yuto Katsuragawa shot -24 to beat Rikuya Hoshino by 1 stroke.
In 2023, the first-round leader was Andy Sullivan, who shot 63 on his way to finishing in a tie for 56th. The eventual winner, Lucas Herbert, was sitting 4 back after the first round.
The course record for this venue was shot by Hideki Matsuyama back in 2016 when he shot -23 to capture his 2nd Mitsui Sumitomo Visa Taiheiyo Masters title.
The bets:
Here is a tough thing to think about with some of these DPWT events, we once again have a couple guys who have decided to take a flight from the US across the globe over to Asia for this event with both C Bez and Matthieu Pavon (likely due to sponsorship obligations) making the trip.
I cant sit around waiting for the placement / matchup markets so I’m going with these and will add placements later on discord.
Outright:
0.5u Sebastian Soderberg 25-1
0.28u Romain Langasque 45-1
0.25u Frederic LaCroix 50-1
0.18u Sam Bairstow 75-1
0.1u Yuni Iwamura 125-1
0.05u Younghan Song 250-1
Good luck with all your action!
Lsat year’s event was held at a different venue