Welcome to our weekly PGA Tour gaming tips column, featuring picks from GOLF.com’s expert prognosticator, Brady Kannon. An experienced golf bettor and commentator, Kannon is a host and regular guest on SportsGrid, a syndicated audio network dedicated to sports and sports betting, and is a golf betting analyst for CBS Sportsline. You can follow Brady on Twitter at @LasVegasGolfer, and you can read their picks below for the 2026 Tour Championship, which kicks off Thursday in Atlanta.
So far this fall, we’ve seen the NFL play games in Australia, Brazil and London. The PGA Tour FedEx Cup Fall resumes this week in Japan as the global push continues in both leagues.
This week’s event is the Baycurrent Classic at Yokohama Country Club, about 30 minutes outside of Tokyo, and it brings with it a limited but star-studded field of 72 players.
This is the second year in a row that this event will be held at Yokohama CC. It’s a no-cut format with an $8 million purse, the largest of the Fall Swing. The tournament will use holes 1-16 from the West Course at Yokohama and holes 17 and 18 from the East Course. It is a single Par 71 set up with three par 3s, two par 5s and 13 par 4s. The golf course is of average length at just over 7,300 yards. Xander Schauffele is back to defend his title, winning last year with a score of 19 under par.
Yokohama Country Club was built in 1960, but noteworthy in today’s handicap was the 2016 renovation carried out by Coore & Crenshaw, who are also responsible for the design of the Plantation Course at Kapalua and the renovation of Pinehurst No. 2 in 2010. As one you will find those two courses, even for the widest part of Yokoham fairway. Last year, players were able to find the fairways here about 10 percent higher than the Tour average. The fairways are heavily treed, however, and carry a steep penalty when missed off the tee, with 3 to 4 inches of rough adding to the potentially difficult recovery. As we see at TPC Craig Ranch, TPC Southwind and East Lake Golf Club, Yokohama’s fairways feature Zoysiagrass. The greens are large, Bentgrass surfaces.
The forecast doesn’t call for much wind, but the players felt some effects of typhoon Halong last year in this area. We know for sure that the course absorbed some significant rain and should play on the milder side – with temperatures topping out in the mid-70s. I looked at Strokes Gained: Approach, Strokes Gained: Ball Striking, Good Drives Gained, Scrambling, Par 4 Scoring, Hole Proximity from 150-200 yards, and Strokes Gained: Putting (Bentgrass).
It is difficult to draw too many conclusions with the composition courses because we only saw this property once before in Tour, but we mentioned a little about the crossover in turf species and Coore & Crenshaw design. As for the layout, I believe it is also similar to TPC Scottsdale (WM Phoenix Open) and TPC Toronto, where they held the Canadian Open the last two seasons.
Note, here in the states, this golf tournament starts Wednesday night at 11 pm ET.
Hideki Matsuyama (19-1)
Certainly Matsuyama is Japan’s most celebrated professional golfer, and he fits the profile well here, being a tremendous striker and scrambler. He also won first at TPC Southwind and finished third at TPC Craig Ranch, both courses that feature Zoysiagrass fairways. Matsuyama also recently won a Kapalua, another Coore & Crenshaw design and was sixth in the US Open at Pinehurst in 2025. He finished top 10 at East Lake four times, won in Phoenix twice, and was 20TH here at Yokohama last fall. In the last 20 rounds, Matsuyama ranks top 10 in this field for SG: Approach, SG: Ball Striking, and SG: Par 4s.
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Matt Wallace (38-1)
The Englishman was 10th there last year and also finished fourth at TPC Craig Ranch (CJ Cup Byron Nelson). He finished this season on the PGA Tour with a pair of top 10 finishes and took it to the DP World Tour with a pair more top 10s last month. Over the last 20 rounds, he is second in this field for SG: Approach and is sixth for SG: Par 4s.
Alex Smalley (45-1)
Smalley finished fourth here at Yokohama last year and finished 13th at TPC Craig Ranch and TPC Toronto. He is ninth in this field for SG: Approach and is top 15 for Hole Proximity from 150-200 yards. Smalley’s length and accuracy off the tee, combined with his holeshot numbers and the fact that he ranks 19th in this field for SG:Putting (Bentgrass) makes it very clear why he has been successful at this golf course.
Kevin Yu (50-1)
Yu is another from the ball forward mold who is especially good off the tee. He finished 20thth there last year and was third at TPC Toronto in 2025. He was also 16th at TPC Scottsdale. Yu ranks 23rd on Tour in Total Driving and is 10th in the field for Good Drives Earned in the last 20 rounds. He is top 10 in this field for Hole Proximity from 150-200 yards, in SG: Par 4s, and ranks third in Scrambling.
Jackson Suber (58-1)
I can’t quit Suber! He is definitely a ball striker and also a player who looks like he will get his first Tour win in no time. He finished fourth at TPC Craig Ranch and went 18-4 the past two years at TPC Toronto. Suber is fifth in this field for SG: Approach, eighth for SG: Ball Striking, and is seventh in Scrambling over the last 20 rounds.