Morikawa and Schauffele the stars in Japan

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The PGA Tour moves from the United States to Japan for the ZOZO Championship, scheduled from 19 to 22 October in Chiba, a city south-east of Tokyo. The event, now in its fifth edition, was played for the first time in 2019, when Tiger Woods won the title and celebrated his 82nd feat (equaling Sam Snead's record) on the top American men's circuit.

Pga Tour, schedule

Several big names competing this year, many of them veterans of the Ryder Cup in Rome. Among these are the Americans Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele and Rickie Fowler, as well as the Danish Nicolai Hojgaard.

After the exploit of 2022, the American Keegan Bradley will chase another success in the competition which will offer 8,500,000 dollars, of which 1,530,000 will go to the winner. In the field there will be 16 of the best 50 in the world, including the Japanese Hideki Matsuyama, one of the favorites of the home crowd and champion of the ZOZO Championship in 2021.

Born in Los Angeles to Debbie and Blaine Morikawa, of Chinese and Japanese origins respectively, he began playing golf at the age of 5.[1] He studied at the University of California, Berkeley, where he practiced the sport from 2015 to 2019 before graduating in business administration.

In December 2021, Morikawa got engaged to his longtime girlfriend, Katherine Zhu. They got married on November 26, 2022. He turned professional in 2019 by taking part in the Canadian Open, where he placed 14th. In August 2020 he won the PGA Championship at his first attempt, then repeating his success in July 2021 by winning the British Open, again as a rookie.

This made him the first golfer in history to win two majors in his first appearance. The Californian also becomes the seventh golfer since 1900 to win the Open on debut – after Jock Hutchison (1921), Denny Shute (1933), Ben Hogan (1953), Tony Lema (1964), Tom Watson (1975) and Ben Curtis (2003)[3] – as well as setting the new record for strokes on the course at Royal St.

George's with 265 (the previous record of 267, set in 1993, was set by Greg Norman).[3]. In 2021 he took part in the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo, finishing third after the scheduled fourth rounds, but tied with nine other golfers. However, in the playoffs he was overtaken by Pan Cheng-tsung, finishing in fourth place.