Baycurrent Classic: Schauffele’s Defense Runs Through 13 Par 4s

Xander Schauffele won last year’s Baycurrent Classic after an even-par opening round. By Sunday, he had reached 19 under and beaten Max Greyserman by a stroke, with a 63 and a closing 64 doing much of the work.

That comeback is worth keeping in mind when the PGA Tour returns to Yokohama Country Club for the Oct. 8-11 tournament. All 72 players are scheduled for four rounds. A poor Thursday can be repaired, although the score Schauffele ultimately posted shows how much ground a contender may have to cover.

The defending champion returns without a victory this season, and the field gives him plenty of company worth watching. Wyndham Clark has won three times in 2026. Hideki Matsuyama brings a run of strong finishes home to Japan. Collin Morikawa, Min Woo Lee and recent winner Jacob Bridgeman offer different ways to attack a course that asks an unusually persistent question: How well can you play a par 4, then do it again?

Yokohama Keeps Coming Back to the Par 4s

The tournament routing has 13 par 4s, three par 3s and just two par 5s. It combines 16 holes from the West Course with two from the East Course, and both par 5s arrive within the first six holes. Players looking for a late scoring opportunity will have to create it elsewhere.

The variety within those par 4s deserves attention. The 337-yard 13th is followed by the 508-yard 14th. One invites a decision about how aggressively to position the tee shot; the next asks the player to handle considerably more golf. An appealing opportunity can be followed immediately by a hole where a loose swing becomes expensive.

Last year’s numbers give a clearer picture of the test than a yardage total would. The field averaged 10.34 fairways hit out of 15, putting Yokohama among the season’s easier courses for finding the short grass. Yet its average of 11.71 greens in regulation placed it in the harder half of the schedule for that measure.

Getting the ball in play was only part of the job. The approach still had to finish somewhere useful, and this is where the course becomes interesting from a coaching perspective. A player can drive it well all day and still spend too much of the round trying to recover. With so many par 4s, there are repeated opportunities for that gap between a good drive and a good approach to show up on the card.

Wind also changed the scoring dramatically in the course’s tournament debut. The opening-round average was slightly above par; the final-round average dropped to 67.72. Schauffele’s winning total should not become an automatic expectation for every day this week. Yokohama has already shown how differently the same holes can play.

Schauffele Has Company, and Matsuyama Has the Home Crowd

Schauffele is seeking the event’s first successful title defense. His connection to Japan runs well beyond this tournament: His mother grew up there, his maternal grandparents live in Tokyo, and he won Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2021. Last year’s victory added a PGA Tour title in Japan to that history.

His 2026 season has included a third-place finish at The Players Championship and a runner-up finish at the Rocket Classic. Winning again would give those near misses a different ending to the year, but his strongest credential here is the golf he played on this layout. He has already demonstrated the scoring required to separate himself when conditions allow it.

Matsuyama’s recent record makes him much more than the familiar face for the Japanese galleries. He has made the cut in all 23 of his Tour starts this season, and his closing stretch of the FedExCup season included consecutive finishes of tied for third, tied for fifth and twice tied for seventh. He tied for 20th at Yokohama last year.

There is no cut to survive this week, so that season-long consistency has a different relevance. Matsuyama has kept giving himself weekends in which to improve his position. At home, with four rounds available, the next step is to turn that dependable work into enough birdies to challenge for his first Tour victory since the 2025 Sentry.

Clark’s Wins and Bridgeman’s Putting Deserve Attention

Clark arrives with three victories this season, including the U.S. Open and BMW Championship, and is the field’s highest-ranked player at No. 5 in the world. His first visit to Yokohama produced a tie for 48th. Only his final-round 68 broke 70.

His 68 was roughly level with last year’s final-round field average of 67.72. Even his best day on that first visit gained little ground once the scoring opened up. Clark’s three wins make him an obvious contender, and his Yokohama rounds give a specific measure of how much better he needs to play here.

Morikawa tied for 14th here last year and won at Pebble Beach in February. On a layout where finding fairways did not necessarily lead to finding greens, his approach play is an obvious part of the viewing interest. Watch whether he turns good position off the tee into birdie chances often enough to stay with the scoring.

Lee tied for 10th in Yokohama’s debut and finished tied for fourth at the Tour Championship. Bridgeman also tied for fourth there, then won the Biltmore Championship Asheville. The Tour’s strokes gained: putting leader enters his Baycurrent debut with a skill that could become especially valuable if the scoring resembles last year’s final round.

Adam Scott’s recent individual tournament results include five consecutive finishes inside the top 20, with a tie for second at the BMW PGA Championship. Doug Ghim has opened the fall with a tie for 17th and a runner-up finish. They add to a field containing 16 of the world’s top 50 players.

Spieth and Ghim Have a Different Scoreboard to Watch

Jordan Spieth enters at No. 55 in the FedExCup Fall standings. He has 10 top-25 finishes in 22 starts this season but is still seeking his first top-10 result since the 2025 Memorial Tournament. Four guaranteed rounds give him room to build a week, though plenty of players in this field will be working from the same advantage.

Ghim has climbed from No. 93 to No. 58 with those first two fall results. Nos. 51-60 in the final fall standings earn entry into the 2027 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Genesis Invitational. Spieth and Ghim currently occupy that group, with six fall events, including this one, still to be played.

For players closer to the other eligibility line, the priority is finishing inside the top 100 to secure exempt status for 2027. Yokohama offers 500 points to the winner and four scheduled rounds in which to improve a position. Nobody needs to spend Friday afternoon wondering whether a Saturday tee time exists.

The two par 5s will be behind the leaders well before they reach the closing stretch Sunday. From the seventh hole on, Yokohama asks them to find their birdies across 10 par 4s and two par 3s. Anyone waiting for a late par 5 to make up a shot will run out of holes.

PGA of America Golf Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer who serves as Athlon Sports Senior Golf Writer. Read his recent “The Starter” on RG.org, where he is their Lead Golf Writer. To stay updated on all of his latest work, sign up for his newsletter or visit his MuckRack Profile.