The Challenge: Japan Skins: Here’s what you need to know
Who doesn’t love a good exhibition match? Ahead of the Zozo Championship next week, a selection of players will take part in what they’re calling ‘The Challenge: Japan Skins’. Catchy.
So what do you need to know? Let’s dive right in.
Everything you need to know about The Challenge: Japan Skins
So who’s taking part?
Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day and Hideki Matsuyama are signed up for The Challenge: Japan Skins. And the banter has been flowing on social media…
The Japanese Class 🇯🇵
More info on #TheChallengeJapanSkins event: https://t.co/ccP2TDAw5J pic.twitter.com/jTjnQP54c8
— GOLFTV (@GOLFTV) October 9, 2019
Where and when is it?
The PGA Tour is landing in Japan for the first time next week and there are plenty of star names headed to the Far East for the inaugural Zozo Championship.
The idea of The Challenge: Japan Skins match is to give the Zozo Championship somewhat of a grand opening.
The exhibition will take place on October 21, with the tournament proper from October 24-27.
It all takes place at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club.
Despite the match being expected to conclude under floodlights, due to the time difference it will be a very early start for those wanting to watch here in the UK – the first tee shot will be hit at 4am our time.
So how can I watch it?
The only place you’ll be able to watch The Challenge: Japan Skins is on GolfTV.
Unfortunately, despite the platform actually broadcasting it for free, licensing laws mean viewers in the UK and Ireland will require a subscription. Prices start at £4.99.
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And the format?
Each hole is worth one skin and the player with the lowest score on the hole will win that particular skin along with the prize money allocated to it.
In the event that more than one player ties the lowest score, the skin and it’s prize money will roll over to the next hole. So, if two or more players score the joint-lowest on the first, then the second hole becomes worth two skins and so on until one player wins a hole.
If this occurs on the 18th hole then it is a simple case of a sudden-death play-off with the only difference being that it will remain worth just one skin unlike the rest of the round.
What are the skins worth?
Not every skin is worth the same amount of money in The Challenge: Japan Skins…
- Holes 1-6: $10,000
- Holes 7-12: $15,000
- Holes 13-17: $20,000
- Hole 18: $100,000
It has been announced that there will be some side challenges in play, but we won’t know what these are until the match is already underway.
These challenges will be for the benefit of the event’s charity partners and will feature on a selection of holes.
If you have any more questions, let us know in the comments below or you can tweet us.
Joe Hughes
Tour editor covering men's golf, women's golf and anything else that involves the word golf, really. The talk is far better than the game, but the work has begun to change that.
