Flying from Las Vegas to anywhere can be a headache-inducing nightmare, knowing that you're leaving the Adult Disney World of Sin City for the real world of somewhere much less exciting. Personally, I've never made the journey from Vegas to Tokyo, but the prospect alone conjures images of being curled up into the fetal position in a middle seat on the back of the plane for hours on end.
My guess is that the 42 players making this exact trip for this week's ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP enjoyed much more palatable conditions, as proven a year ago. In that example, four of the top six on the final leaderboard had traveled from the CJ Cup in Vegas one week earlier, though none of them – including winner Hideki Matsuyama – had finished better than 25th beforehand.
I don't believe that statistic alone will sway anyone from fading 20-year-old wunderkind Tom Kim on the heels of his second win in his last four starts, as the dynamic personality is quickly rising among the ranks of the game's more marketable stars, if not also its most proficient.
That even goes for those observers who contend that Kim won last week's Shriners Children's Open as much as Patrick Cantlay lost it, the result of imploding with a triple-bogey finish on the tournament's final hole.