Hideki Matsuyama nearly blew a five-shot lead after a late misstep Sunday afternoon at TPC Southwind.
But thanks to two consecutive birdies to end his day, Matsuyama leaves Memphis with a victory.
Matsuyama held on to the finish for a two-shot victory at the FedEx St. Jude Championship on Sunday, the first of three FedEx Cup playoff events to close out the PGA Tour season. Matsuyama’s victory moved him up to third in the standings heading into next week’s BMW Championship.
Matsuyama, who had to sit out the tournament with a replacement caddie after an incident in London following the Paris Olympics, entered the final round with a massive five-shot lead. He opened the week with a 65 on Thursday before shooting back-to-back 64s to build a massive five-shot lead over the rest of the field, the largest 54-hole lead on Tour this season. He was tied with Denny McCarthy at the halfway point, but McCarthy, Scottie Scheffler, Nick Dunlap and the rest of the field just couldn’t keep up.
Despite his five-shot lead entering the final nine holes on Sunday, Matsuyama collapsed. He finished 4 over par through four holes after hitting his tee shot on the par-3 14th into the water, then doubled the par-4 15th after running into trouble around the green. Matsuyama suddenly came back behind Viktor Hovland and opened the door for the rest of the field.
But eventually, Matsuyama found his putter on the 17th hole. He made a 26-foot birdie putt to get back to 1 over par and retake the lead heading into the final hole.
Matsuyama then added a birdie on the 18th after a perfect approach to get back to 17 under par and close out his even-par 70. That gave him the two-shot victory.
“I knew I had two holes left to play, and that’s exactly what I thought: ‘Two more holes. I have to make birdie,'” Matsuyama said through an interpreter after his victory.
“I knew if I could keep my ball in the fairway on 17, I had a chance. It was in the left rough. The position wasn’t too bad. I was able to put it on the green.”
On that putt, I took advantage of the whole week on the greens. I played well all week and I thought, ‘Well, I’ve done it before, let’s do it again.’ Then the 18th was just a blessing, I guess.
Matsuyama won a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics earlier this month. On his way back to the United States for this week’s event, Matsuyama stopped in London with his caddie, Shota Hayafuji, and his coach, Mikihito Kuromiya. While they were out for dinner one night, they suddenly realized 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 dinner with friends, and Shota was the first one to come,”Hey, where’s my bag??’
“Of course it was frustrating, but we didn’t really know it was happening. It was just kind of…