Weekly PGA Recap: Hideki Hangs On

This article is part of our Weekly PGA Recap series.

Here are two recent facts about Hideki Matsuyama:

1. He was robbed at the London airport en route home from the Olympics.
2. He was first at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in putting and gained more than eight shots on the field.

Not to make light of a very serious situation, but if we had been asked which we thought was more likely to happen, we'd have absolutely gone with Door No. 1.

Matsuyama won the FedEx St. Jude Championship on Sunday at TPC Southwind by overcoming a series of obstacles both before and during the tournament. He had lost all of a five-stroke, 54-hole lead in the Tour's playoff opener before birdieing the final two holes to win by two strokes over Xander Schauffele and Viktor Hovland.

It was Matsuyama's second PGA Tour win of the season and 10th in his career. He moved to No. 6 in the world rankings -- his highest position in more than six years -- showing how much of a force he can still be when healthy. He had been plagued by neck and back issues the past few years.

After winning a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics, Matsuyama, his caddie Shota Hiyato and manager Mikhito Kuromiya were robbed at the London airport heading home. Hiyato and Kuromiya had their passports stolen, and they were forced to return to Japan. Matsuyama had his passport, but not his caddie. So he turned to Taiga Tabuchi, who worked this season with Ryo Hisatsune.

Switching caddies in the playoffs was Matsuyama's first obstacle to overcome.

For 3 ½ rounds, it was the only one.

Armed with a new putter, Matsuyama was crushing this elite 70-player field and headed to Sunday ahead by five strokes. He still had that same large lead after 11 holes on Sunday. Then, almost out of nowhere, came a bogey on 12, a water ball on 14 resulting in another bogey and a double on 15. Unfathomably, he was now a stroke behind Hovland.

But armed with the new putter that was magic all week, Matsuyama drained a 26-footer for birdie on 17 and, while needing only par on 18 to win, made a 6-footer for a birdie/exclamation point.

"On the course, you have a routine, but with a new caddie, that routine changes, and so we were working through that all week," Matsuyama said. "But he was a great help to me. Helped me read a lot of putts. A lot of good lines that he gave me."

Before you even ask, no, Tabuchi is done and Hiyato will be back on the bag at this week's BMW Championship at Castle Pines. In fact, Matsuyama said, his regular caddie is already in Denver.

And before you even ask about the putter, Matsuyama isn't sure he'll stick with it at the BMW.

"Coming into Memphis, I felt like I needed a change of pace, kind of a refresh with my putter," said Matsuyama, ranked 133rd on Tour in Strokes Gained: Putting coming into the week. "I thought about the putters I had, and I felt -- because I knew this course. I knew the condition of the greens. I thought this putter might work, and it did. I putted great, and I won.

"Whether or not I'll use it next week, we'll see. I've never played Castle Pines golf course, and we'll just have to wait and see what the greens are like there before I choose which putter I'll use."

Not to tell a professional golfer what to do but: Stick with the same dang putter, Hideki!

Matsuyama leading the field in putting is one of the stunners of the entire golf season and brings to mind one year ago when Lucas Glover found religion, er, a good putting stroke and won the Wyndham and FedEx St. Jude back-to-back. (It didn't last for Glover, who ranked about 150th in putting this season and failed to qualify for the playoffs.)

Matsuyama is well known for his ball-striking and ranked third in the field in SG: Approach. When you can be third in Approach and first in Putting, a golfer could run away and hide.

But there were other obstacles to overcome in the form of the best golfers in the world.

Still, if Matsuyama can putt anywhere near where he did at TPC Southland, the rest of his game is good enough to compete with the Schefflers and Schauffeles of the world.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Xander Schauffele
It's a little hard to believe, but Schauffele's 63 on Sunday was his lowest round of the season. It vaulted him into the clubhouse lead before Matsuyama regrouped.

Scottie Scheffler
Scheffler tied for fifth, his 11th top-5 in 17 starts. You almost can't go wrong playing him or Schauffele any week.

Sam Burns
It's hard to knock a player with six top-10s, but three of them for Burns came in the first six weeks of the season. He tied for fifth at the FedEx St. Jude, reinforcing his place not only in the BMW but the Tour Championship. Despite seven top-10s, Burns really hasn't contended for a title this year.

Wyndham Clark
Clark's season was heavily front-loaded before a midseason swoon. It's clearly over, as this week's tie for seventh was his third top-10 in his past four starts. That doesn't include a T14 at the Olympics. Clark now gets to play a home game at the BMW at Castle Pines outside his native Denver.

Robert MacIntyre
MacIntyre tied for fifth, cementing his spot in the Tour Championship in two weeks.

Denny McCarthy
McCarthy tied for ninth, zooming from 45th in points to 30th. That means that if the Tour Championship started today, he'd be in it. But of course that's not the case, and he will have his work cut out for him at uber-long Castle Pines.

Billy Horschel
Horschel tied for 10th, continuing a remarkable renaissance over the past few months. He probably won't get strong consideration for the U.S. Presidents Cup squad. But maybe he should?

Will Zalatoris
It has not been a good but not great season for Zalatoris in his return from back surgery. He's had three top-10s but only five top-25s. However, he is in the top 50 in points, 37th to be precise, so that kind of does make it a great season. After missing three cuts in a row, Zalatoris tied for 12th.

Keegan Bradley
The incoming U.S. Ryder Cup captain began the week in a seemingly safe 39th place in the point standings. A tie for 59th at the FedEx dropped him right to the cut line at No. 50.
 
Rory McIlroy
McIlroy opened with a decent 68, then fell apart, unable to match par the rest of the way in a stunning tie for 68th.

Jordan Spieth
Spieth's season is over after tying for 68th and surgery on his left wrist will happen quickly. It's been a terrible season for Spieth, one that included only three top-10s, none of them since April. Spieth has tumbled outside the top 40 in the world rankings. We may not see him again till the Hero World Challenge in November, if not January.

Max Homa
Homa shot a 78 on Friday, the worst round of anyone in the tournament. He wound up dead-last in 70th place. He hasn't had a top-10 since May, he's fallen to 43rd in points and needs to figure it out in a hurry or he'll be going home after next week.

FedExCup Standings

Entering the Top 50: Viktor Hovland, Nick Dunlap, Eric Cole
Exiting the Top 50: Tom Kim, Mackenzie Hughes, Jake Knapp

Hovland is the reigning FedExCup Champion and began the week at No. 57. He needed to get into the top 50 in the point standings to qualify for this week's BMW Championship. He was amid a terrible season and entered the week with only one top-10 all year. He now has two. Hovland tied for second, cracking the top 50 at the last possible moment. He moved all the way to 16th, meaning he will go all the way to East Lake. Hovland is the defending champion in both the BMW and Tour Championship. He'd been struggling with a swing change. The question is, did he finally figure out? Or will this be a one-off, like when he finished third at the PGA Championship back in May?

Considering Dunlap did not get points for winning the Amex since he was an amateur at the time, reaching the final 50 is no small accomplishment. He came on late in the season, with no result bigger than Sunday's tie for fifth. After a near-fatal bogey on 17, he piped his drive on the difficult 18th hole and had a stress-free par, looking far more poised than a 20-year-old. But he will need a huge week at the BMW to keep going, starting in 48th place.

Cole used a closing 63 to zoom up the leaderboard into a tie for 18th and move from 54th to 46th in the point standings. He's another player who came on strong toward season's end, looking much more like the 2023 Rookie of the Year.

All Kim needed to advance to the BMW was to play the final three holes in 4-over. He played them in 5-over in a disastrous bogey-double-double finish, finding the water with his tee ball on 18. He tied for 50th. Still only 22 years old and ranked top-20 in the world coming in to the week, this overall was a bad season. Kim had only two top-10s. He did not have a top-25 in the majors. This was a second straight subpar season for Kim, so it's fair to wonder what next year will bring.

Last year at the FedEx St. Jude, two players got knocked out of the top 50. This year, the number was three. Unfortunately for Hughes, he was in both groups. Both falls are devastating in light of what was lost, but this one is worse, as Hughes is still fighting to be on next month's International Presidents Cup squad in his native Canada. He finished solo 58th in Memphis.

Knapp emerged from obscurity by winning the Mexico Open in February. He had only two more top-20s the rest of the way, and it cost him at the last possible moment. Beginning the week in the 50th position, Knapp finished 67th at TPC Southwind to tumble all the way to 59th place.

The Tour announced that of the 50 players reaching this year's BMW, 19 of them didn't make it to last year's BMW. That's nearly a 40 percent turnover, which has to make the Tour happy.