The ZOZO Championship was the last event when Tiger Woods won and tied the 82 title wins record by Sam Snead. The year was 2019, and since then, the ZOZO Championship has been an iconic event on the PGA Tour. Despite being a fall event, it attracts many of the top talent to tee up at the ACCORDIA Golf Narashino Country Club.

This year as well, some top players like 1-time ZOZO Championship winner Hideki Matsuyama, 2-time major winner Xander Schauffele, and the defendant champion, Collin Morikawa, will be on the field. Interestingly, unlike most Fall events where the field is stretched over 100 golfers, at the ZOZO Championship, there will be only 78 players. It sort of resembles the field of signature events, so will there be no cut like those events?

Surprisingly yes. The golf world is more acclimated to a limited field, no-cut events during the regular season, as five out of eight signature events were such. But because of the elevated nature of the ZOZO Championship, there will be no 36-hole cut, all 78 golfers will be playing over four days in the 72-hole stroke play, and an $8.5 million prize purse will be distributed among all, assuring that every golfer takes home something from the ACCORDIA Golf Narashino Country Club.

Another interesting thing about the ZOZO Championship is that instead of starting on Thursday, for the US audience, it starts on Wednesday night. But it will end on Sunday, regardless. As many rules are different at this fall event of the PGA Tour, what happens in case of a tie in the final round?

What’s the playoff rule at the ZOZO Championship?

Usually in golf, there are two different types of playoffs played after a tie. An event either follows an aggregate score over particular holes, like 18 holes as it used to happen before 1989 at the Open Championship or four holes as it is now the playoff rule of the British Open. However, for any regular PGA Tour events, the Tour has the tied players go against each other in a sudden-death playoff that occurs on the 18th and 17th until only one remains as the winner.

As the ZOZO Championship stays different than the regular PGA Tour events, does it follow the same playoff rule? Interestingly, the ZOZO Championship goes by the sudden-death playoff rather than an aggregate score. But what is surprising is that since the event was inaugurated in 2019, there have been no playoffs to announce the winner.

Surprisingly, all the winners, Tiger Woods, Hideki Matsuyama, Collin Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay, and Keegan Bradley, have won pretty dominantly. Will the same tradition follow at the 2024 ZOZO Championship? It remains to be seen.