Hideki Matsuyama (-35) is the first king of the year in world golf. Of course, given the time of year, it had to come from the East. The Japanese golfer has claimed his eleventh victory on the PGA Tour after winning the The Sentry Tournament with a clean ‘wedgeazo’. In Matsuyama’s own style.
The first decisive blow came on the 3rd hole of the Plantation course, holing out from about 100 metres from the fairway for eagle. The second and final one came on the 16th. He almost holed it again from the fairway, this time from about 70 metres, bouncing less than a foot from the hole and leaving the birdie done. It was a three-shot lead with two to play. Decisive. Or almost, as on the 17th he added a bit of drama with a birdie putt that went too far and still had to sink a two-metre return that went in on the right edge.
Matsuyama capped his display with another birdie on the 18th to put the finishing touch. Yes, this year he brought gold. Not only does he achieve victory, but he does so with two records in the gift bag. The first is the most birdies or better in a 72-hole tournament. The previous mark was 33, and the Japanese has now set it at 35. Similarly, he surpassed the winning score of -34 set by Cameron Smith in 2022 in this same tournament, which until today was the lowest score in PGA Tour history.
From very early on, as expected, the fight for victory became a duel between Matsuyama and Collin Morikawa (-32). The Californian is hungry for victories. On Saturday, he stated that he had changed his mindset to play every week, every day, every shot, as if it were the last of his career. Perhaps this need to touch silver again is playing tricks on him, at least for now, as he did not display his best golf in the final round. He didn’t leave them as close as on other days and was trailing behind Hideki. He will have to do something to control that hunger and prevent it from turning into anxiety on Sundays. Be that as it may, there aren’t many criticisms to make. It’s the fourth-best result in the history of this tournament, only behind Matsuyama (-35), Cameron Smith (-34), and Jon Rahm (-33). Simply put, Matsuyama was unassailable. The worst result for the Japanese this week was eight under par.
No one else managed to get close to the two main favourites. Thomas Detry, the third member of the star group, took himself out of the picture with a costly double bogey on the 2nd hole. How uphill Sundays are for the Belgian. The others were too far away. Sungjae Im (-29) finished in third place. It’s interesting that the podium was occupied by three golfers of Asian descent. Additionally, highlight the final round of Ludvig Aberg (-24), 64 strokes, to finish fifth, as well as the good performance in 2025 by Jhonattan Vegas (-25), fourth alone. It’s impressive how easily the Swede achieves good results without really getting into the fight for victories most of the time.
The final day of the Sentry wasn’t as smooth as Friday and Saturday. There was some wind, although not strong enough to prevent very good results from being seen. Even -20 wasn’t enough to finish in the top 20. The quirks of the Sentry when the wind doesn’t blow with enough energy.
