Hideki Matsuyama (-17) has finally entered the winners’ club of the Fedex Cup play off after taking the first one this year, the Fedex St.Jude Championship. It has taken him eleven seasons to achieve it (2014-2024) and he has done it on his thirty-fourth attempt, but he is now the first Japanese to win one of these tournaments. The first oriental, in fact. As almost always in his career, Hideki is blazing the trail.
He started with a formidable advantage in the final round (five strokes over the second), but in the end his triumph sailed for a good while in the sea of uncertainty due to his own mistakes. During the first two thirds of the round the Japanese, without doing great things, controlled the situation, and not even a bogey on the 12th really put him in serious trouble.
Then, things were going to get complicated: he went to the water off the tee on the 14th and pulled off a great bogey, but then he signed a double bogey on the 15th after chaining one mistake after another and was also unable to get the birdie on the 16th, the last par 5 of the course and the easiest hole of the TPC Southwind… Again, the curse of the play offs loomed over him (he had not even finished second in any of the 33 he had already played).
He had squandered all the advantage, while Xander Schauffele (-15) and Viktor Hovland (-15) were pressing hard. He also had an added problem that is understood from common sense: where was he going to get the necessary composure to face the last two holes with guarantees, because his seemed more like a free fall…
The Japanese’s finish, with birdies on holes 17 and 18, is only within the reach of the so-called chosen ones, who are not as many as we sometimes pretend. On the 17th he holed a good putt of almost eight meters, but on the 18th, which is a very tense hole, especially from the tee, with the water waiting all along the left flank, he played it as if he were in Monday’s practice round, no more no less. A great 3 wood flirting with the lake and a brave shot to the green, looking for a forbidden flag, so close to that left side, to leave himself a putt of just a meter and a half. Where was Hideki going to get the necessary composure to still give himself an option, we wondered. Well, from wherever the chosen ones get it when it really matters. There’s no more.
In all fairness, it’s hard to believe that Hovland was in the fight until the 72nd hole, where he wasted an excellent birdie opportunity to have put even more pressure, just after making a bogey on the 17th. Not even the Norwegian was sure of himself in the previous days and the 70 he signed in the first round somehow confirmed that he was not up for big challenges. Neither did Schauffele seem to enter the equation this time, truth be told. But there’s no better restorative than a Sunday 63.
Scottie Scheffler (-14) has finished in fourth position, behind these three beasts, and he did so by sinking a stride of more than twelve meters on the 72nd hole of the tournament for birdie, undoubtedly the longest putt he has holed all week. He arrived a little late. It was a matter of details that he was not also on the lookout in the moments of leader’s distress, but at least he leaves with the best result of his career at the TPC Southwind, where it’s only a matter of time before he wins, such is the confidence we have in this extraordinary player.
Matsuyama reaches the third place in the Fedex Cup with the 2,000 points he has earned before the dispute of the second play off. The big move of the week has been made by Hovland, who arrived outside the top fifty and leaves 16th in the ranking after climbing 41 positions. Remember that getting into the top fifty, in addition to keeping you in the play offs, guarantees your presence in the designated tournaments next year. Eric Cole and Nick Dunlap also arrived outside the fifty and have finished inside. On the contrary, Tom Kim, Mackenzie Hughes and Jake Knapp, who had arrived inside, have dropped out after an insufficient performance this week.
