Matsuyama's Record Kapalua Triumph
Morikawa finishes three back hitting 66 of 72 greens. Also, Schauffele addresses Ryder Cup pay, Hatton calls BS on Rahm's rumored LIV misery, and match play is eyed as a Tour Championship option.
72 holes.
35-under-par.
65-65-62-65.
Hideki Matsuyama’s 11th PGA Tour win came at the expense of poor old Kapalua and its Coore and Crenshaw-designed Plantation course, where the 32-year-old almost played half his holes under par.
If only he’d made more solid strikes that allowed him to finish shots with both hands affixed to his clubs.
Matsuyama’s total in “The Sentry” finished at 257 shots to equal a career-best, set a new PGA Tour 72-hole scoring record (to par), and break Cameron Smith’s 2022 tournament record. Matsuyama made 33 birdies and two eagles to go with two bogeys. One of those came Sunday at the par 4 seventh to end a bogey-free run of 47 holes. Yet he still surpassed Smith and third-place finisher Sungjae Im’s all-time birdie-or-better record in a single event (35).
For the few fans watching the PGA Tour opener positioned oh-so-strategically against the NFL regular season’s concluding day full of playoff ramifications to ensure the fewest eyeballs possible, viewers were treated to an abnormally high number of Matsuyama’s trademark one-armed finish. Or maybe it was the juxtaposition with fake-looking red numbers. The failed follow-throughs became so relentless during Saturday’s third round, that Golf Channel analyst Smylie Kaufmann suggested Matsuyama would likely hit the range post-round to figure out how to get back to more center-face strikes. After a 62.
And this brings us to the nutty state of modern pro golf when a rain-softened course becomes defenseless, lacks a fighting spirit, and where record birdie totals elicit more yawns than yippy-doo-das.
If only there were a solution?
Regardless, Matsuyama deserves full credit for taking advantage of the largely defenseless course that only started to show signs of its old ways Sunday when the stiff winds and fairway roll returned.
The win sets up Asia’s all-time greatest golfer for a big year if he can stay healthy. Matsuyama is coming off a two-win season (Genesis, FedEx St Jude) highlighted by a final round 62 at Riviera and a bronze medal in the Paris Olympic Games. Majors were less fun in 2024 for Hideki: outside of a nice performance at Pinehurst the results were subpar by the 2021 Masters Champion’s standards: T38-T35-6-T66.
Also…
Collin Morikawa recorded a runner-up for the 10th time in 122 starts and now has six top-seven finishes in as many appearances at The Sentry. The two-time major champion hit 66 of 72 greens for the week, the same number as Matsuyama. The duo tied for most greens hit but in Morikawa’s case the effort is noteworthy heading into the majors. Perennially one of the game’s best approach players, he fell to 42nd in strokes gained approach last year even as his putting numbers improved (from 114th to 73rd in ‘24). On Sunday, Morikawa had yet to record a three-putt for the week until back-to-back tri-wacks at the fifth and sixth holes.
Sungjae Im (3rd) played his last 51 holes without a bogey.
Thomas Detry traveled over 8000 miles from Dubai to play in Maui and registered an impressive T5 finish despite a final round 71 (only two-under-par!).
Not to be outdone, NBC’s return to college basketball coverage means they are emulating the CBS tradition of scheduling games that bleed me into coverage. Lucky us. This set up a less-than-idyllic start on Golf Channel, a move for a few hours to NBC before the final 120 minutes concluded on Golf Channel.
That’s not a big deal to those with a cable box remote control where numbers are entered and channels change effortlessly. But for streamers, Peacock only carries the NBC portion of the proceedings. This means the poor souls who cut the cord and signed up for Comcast’s Peacock had to navigate between multiple apps twice during the final round.
Reminder: it’s 2025 and this Peacock Shuffle stuff is still going on.