The 2024 Zozo Championship has brought the PGA Tour’s big shots out of their den. World No. 2, Xander Schauffele, and his colleagues Collin Morikawa, Max Homa, Justin Thomas, and Sahith Theegala are a few of the bigwigs traveling to Japan this week. The Accordia Golf Club will host this year’s event as well. 

The Kinya Fujita-designed layout challenged the game’s top draws last year. And the years before that. There are reasons more than one. It might be a par-70 layout, but its long par-4s lack fangs, and greens don’t suffer from a want of sharp teeth. 

One thing you will notice at the Accordia Golf Club is how long the par-4s are. The 12th runs to 490 yards and played as the most difficult hole last year (4.36). What makes it harder is the almost protruding bunkers that narrow the fairways at the halfway mark. 

Whereas, the 17th includes two sand traps ready to gulp your ball as it rolls down the undulating greens. The 491-yard par-4 starts with a dogleg on the left of the fairway. Then there is the monster 4th, measuring a whopping 505 yards.

The elevated greens often force an uphill putting. Little wonder that the 4th records around the lowest number of birdies in each edition. The hole starts with a long drive with a water hazard strategically placed on the left side of the fairway. 

As if these surprises were not enough, Accordia also sticks to the old practice of two greens. As Jeff Eisenband explained in an article on the PGA Tour, in the past, many courses used to have two greens on each hole, factoring in the climatic conditions. Although it has been discarded on this side of the Atlantic, some overseas courses keep two greens. Each year, the club management decides which holes will have two greens. 

For players in the field, the challenge is hatching out different strategies for each round depending not just on pin locations but the type of greens. This is a unique challenge for PGA Tour pros who are not used to tackling a two-headed beast like Accordia Golf Club. Now if you add weather into play, the scenic Accordia Golf Club can quickly turn into PGA Tour pros’ hell. 

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The weather makes Accordia Golf Club one tough beast to handle

Last year, strong winds of 36 MPH (comparably the wind gust at Augusta was 15-20 MPH at this year’s Masters) turned the Accordia Golf Club into a truly diabolical test for the PGA Tour pros. Only 13 players broke par in the second round. Ben Taylor shot 14-over in the par-70 layout, picking 12 bogeys and a double bogey.

Cam Davis called it one of the windiest rounds he played in 2023. Xander Schauffele terming it ‘hard’ was an understatement. “I think everyone’s happy that the round’s over.” That betrayed his true feelings. 

Ironically, this year it might be the same. The weather forecast predicts strong winds for all four rounds, with slight chances of rain as well. Overall, the FedEx Cup Fall season will witness one tough battle in Japan. The tournament begins this Thursday.