Power looking to upstage the big guns at Zozo Championship

Ronan MacNamara

23rd October 2024

Seamus Power will look to bounce back after a missed cut last week when he tees it up at the Zozo Championship in Japan as a host of big name players return to action.

Power did fall to 53rd in the FedEx Cup rankings but he still maintains a commanding position in the FedEx Cup Fall series with the top-60 earning starts in signature events at Pebble Beach and The Genesis in 2025.

Among some of the stars competing this week are Rickie Fowler, Max Homa, Hideki Matsuyama, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas and Will Zalatoris.

Thomas last played on the PGA TOUR at the Tour Championship in September and he returns to action at a tournament he hasn’t competed in since 2019.

“[I’ve had] quite a bit of time off,” Thomas said Tuesday at the Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club, hosting the 78-player, no-cut event.

“I was champing at the bit to get here. The time off is nice, but if I don’t compete for a long time, I get … not bored but I want to get back and play in tournaments again.”

JT was a notable omission from Jim Furyk’s victorious Presidents Cup side after a winless 2024 season brought about five top-10s from 19 starts.

The American is bidding to end a 29 month wait for a 16th PGA TOUR victory. His last triumph was at the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills.

However, Thomas has won four times in Asia so there is a reason he has returned to the Zozo.

“I had a lot of success in Asia … don’t worry, I definitely thought about that,” Thomas joked.

Having won at least once on the PGA TOUR between 2015 and 2022, world number one Scottie Scheffler has won nine times since Thomas’ last trophy.

Scheffler added a second title at the Masters and PLAYERS Championship while he won Olympic gold in Paris and a maiden FedEx Cup title.

What made the victory at TPC Sawgrass all the more impressive was that Scheffler was clearly struggling with a neck injury picked up early in his second round.

“[His neck injury] didn’t really come up until our third hole on Friday,” Thomas recalls. “I just remember he hit this tee shot and it was like the most absurd follow-through I’ve ever seen and I was audibly laughing because I thought it was just one of his patented follow-throughs only to find out it was his neck and I actually felt pretty bad.

“It was pretty cool, and I honestly felt like I learned a lot because it reminded me of watching somebody get their way around a golf course when they don’t have their best stuff,” Thomas said. “That’s something I feel like I have been and am very good at … at times. I think over the course of a long career, winning big tournaments when you don’t have your best stuff is a really big accomplishment and internally. It just brings a lot of confidence. Watching him just truly plot his way around the course and not taking on anything that he shouldn’t was impressive.”