Hideki Matsuyama picked up right where he left off last season.
Matsuyama surged ahead to grab a three-shot win over Collin Morikawa at The Sentry on Sunday afternoon to officially kick off the new PGA Tour season. Matsuyama fired a 65 in the final round, where he recorded just his second bogey of the week at The Plantation Course at Kapalua in Hawaii, to get to 35-under for the tournament.
The win marked the 11th of Matsuyama’s career on Tour, and his third in the last 10 months. He set the Tour’s 72-hole scoring record with his final birdie at the 18th, too. That broke Cameron Smith’s previous mark of 34-under, which he set at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in 2022.
Matsuyama entered the final day with a one-shot lead thanks to a clean outing on Saturday. He carded a career-best 11 birdies while recording a bogey-free 62. That moved Matsuyama to 27-under on the week, which set the record at the Plantation course through 54 holes.
Matsuyama then holed out for eagle from about 100 yards in the fairway at the par-4 third on Sunday, which suddenly pushed his lead to three just a few holes into the final round. Despite the ridiculous shot, Matsuyama barely flinched.
Matsuyama made three more birdies, and just his second bogey of the entire tournament, to close out the front nine and push his lead to four. He then carded three more birdies on the back nine to keep his lead and cruise to the win.
Morikawa finished alone in second at 32-under on the week. After matching Matsuyama’s 62 on Saturday, he finished with a 6-under 67 in the final round. Sungjae Im came in third at 29-under.
Top-ranked golfer Scottie Scheffler missed the signature event this week due to a hand injury he sustained on Christmas. He is expected to make his season debut at The American Express later this month.
Though there was a small offseason break, and even a minor back injury that impacted him during the playoffs last fall, Matsuyama is in the middle of one of the best stretches of his career. The Japanese star won twice last season, first at the Genesis Invitational in February and then again at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in August. He won a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics last summer, too, and had seven top-10 finishes on Tour — including a sixth-place finish at the U.S. Open and a T9 run at the Tour Championship to end the year. He started the week at No. 6 in the Official World Golf Rankings, which is his best position since the start of the 2018 campaign. He won the Sentry that season, too.
The Tour season is only a week old, and major championship season is still months out, but Matsuyama is playing as good as anybody in the world. If there was ever a time for him to land his second career major title, it’s in 2025.
