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Hideki Matsuyama nearly blew a five-shot lead after a late stumble on Sunday afternoon at TPC Southwind. But thanks to back-to-back birdies to end his day, Matsuyama is walking out of Memphis with a win.
Matsuyama held on late to claim a two-shot win over the field at the FedEx St. Jude Championship on Sunday, which was the first of three FedEx Cup Playoffs events to close out the PGA Tour’s season. Matsuyama’s win pushed him to No. 3 in the standings heading into the BMW Championship.
Matsuyama, who had to spend the tournament with a replacement caddie after an incident in London after the Paris Olympics, started the final round with a huge five-shot lead. He opened the week with a 65 on Thursday before posting back-to-back 64s to build up a massive five-shot lead over the rest of the field — which was the largest 54-hole lead on Tour this season. He was tied with Denny McCarthy at the midway point, but McCarthy, Scottie Scheffler, Nick Dunlap and the rest of the field couldn’t keep up.
Despite taking his five-shot lead into the back nine on Sunday, Matsuyama fell apart. He went 4-over in a four-hole stretch after he hit his tee shot on the par-3 14th into the water and then doubled the par-4 15th after running into trouble around the green. That suddenly dropped Matsuyama back behind Viktor Hovland and opened the door for the rest of the field.
Matsuyama found his putter again at No. 17. He sank a 26-footer for birdie to get back to 1-over on the day and retake the lead heading into the final hole.
Matsuyama then added a birdie at No. 18 after a perfect approach to get back to 17-under and close out his even-par 70. That gave him the two-shot win.
“I knew I still had two holes left, and that was just what I was thinking, ‘Two more holes. I’ve got to make one birdie,'” Matsuyama said through an interpreter after his win.
“I knew if I could keep it in the fairway at 17, I’d have a chance. It was in the left rough. Lie wasn’t too bad. I was able to get it on the green.
On that putt, I drew from this entire week’s putting on the greens. I putted well all week, and I thought, well, I did it before, let’s do it again. Then 18 was just gravy, I guess.
Matsuyama won a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics earlier this month. As he was making the trek back to the United States for this tournament, Matsuyama stopped in London with his caddie, Shota Hayafuji, and his coach, Mikihito Kuromiya. As they were eating dinner one night downtown, they suddenly realized that their bags were missing.
“We didn’t even know it happened,” Matsuyama said through an interpreter Thursday, via the PGA Tour. “We were just having a friendly dinner, and Shota was the first one, ‘Hey, where is my bag?’
“Of course it was frustrating, but we really didn’t know it happened. It was just kind of all of a sudden.”
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While Matsuyama’s medal wasn’t stolen, both Kuromiya and Hayafuji lost their passports and visas. So they had to fly back to Japan to get replacements while Matsuyama went on to Memphis alone. Taiga Tabuchi, who normally caddies for Ryo Hisatsune, stepped in for Matsuyama for this tournament. Hayafuji was cleared to return to the United States and will be on the bag for Matsuyama in Colorado this coming week.
Matsuyama has won 10 times in his career on Tour and twice this season, following his comeback win at The Genesis Invitational in February. He entered the week at No. 12 in the Official World Golf Rankings and at No. 8 in the FedEx Cup standings, which had him safely into the BMW Championship, which begins Thursday. The top 50 golfers in the standings will qualify for the second playoff stop, and then the top 30 will advance to the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta.
Xander Schauffele, who won the British Open earlier this season, finished in second with Hovland at 15-under. Scheffler finished alone in fourth at 14-under. Scheffler will enter next week with a nearly 1,500-point lead in the FedEx Cup standings.