Setbacks Can’t Stop Matsuyama from Securing His 10th PGA Tour Victory
The FedEx Cup playoffs continued this past weekend at TPC Southwind where Hideki Matsuyama won his 10th career PGA tour event. However, his victory in the FedEx St.Jude Championship didn’t come without many setbacks. The recent bronze medal winner in the 2024 Paris Olympics faced controversy and misfortune en route to his win in Memphis on Sunday. Bad luck followed Matsuyama from the London airport to the United States, after returning from international duty and nearly cost Matsuyama the victory.
Coming back from Olympic play in Paris, Matsuyama and his team were robbed during their layover in a London airport before being able to return back to the United States. This meant that the former Master’s champion would have to play without the help of his coach and his first-choice caddie due to their passports being stolen. Despite their absence, Matsuyama remained unfazed. Holding a tie for the lead after round one, back-to-back Rounds of 64 on Friday and Saturday put Matsuyama firmly in the lead going into the final round on Sunday. However, trouble managed to find Matsuyama once more. On the par-four seventh hole, Matsuyama played an iron shot onto the green, making a divot on the surface before trickling just off of the fringe. After walking up to his ball and taking a look at the hole, Matsuyama stepped on this divot in order to improve the condition of the course. He was later investigated for possibly improving his line of play up until the par-four 12th hole, speaking with a rules official about the incident before teeing off. In this conversation, PGA rules officials told Matsuyama that he would not be assessed with a two-stroke penalty after the investigation. After this discussion, Matsuyama played poorly and went on to bogey the 12th, and 14th, and after a double bogey on the par four 15th, he was trailing for the first time since the very beginning of the tournament. Despite this distress, Matsuyama remained calm and stayed aggressive to finish his round recording back-to-back birdies on 17 and 18 in order to earn the victory.
This win moves Matsuyama to third in the FedEx Cup standings, trailing only Xander Schauffele and Scottie Scheffler with two events remaining before a FedEx Cup champion is crowned. With the tremendous lead held on the number one spot by Scheffler, Schauffele is the only golfer who can mathematically catch him for the number one seed. Assuming the top three seeds stay the same, Scheffler will start the final event of the year at 10 under, Schauffele at eight under, and Matsuyama three strokes back at seven under par. Colin Morikawa and Rory McIlroy will also be within striking distance, sitting at the fourth and fifth seeds respectively. The top 50 golfers in FedEx Cup points will play this weekend at the BMW Championship in Colorado, with the golfers placed between 31-50 being eliminated at the conclusion of Sunday's final round. This will leave 30 golfers remaining for the Tour Championship to conclude the 2023-2024 PGA season.
