Hideki Matsuyama poses with the trophy after winning the 2024 FedEx St. Jude Championship. | Photo by Mike Mulholland/Getty Images
Hideki Matsuyama picked up his second win of the year at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, holding on for dear life down the stretch.
Hideki Matsuyama’s week began and ended with plenty of stress.
His caddy and coach had their passports robbed in London, leaving Matsuyama without his looper for the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis. But it looked like Matsuyama felt unfazed by the incident for the first 54 holes, as he carried a 5-shot lead going into Sunday’s final round.
Matsuyama operated in cruise control for the first 11 holes on Sunday, as his birdie on the par-3 11th got him to 19-under-par and five shots clear of Viktor Hovland. The train began to veer off the track at the par-4 12th, where PGA Tour Chief Referee Gary Young approached Matsuyama to discuss a possible rules violation from earlier in the round. Luckily, Young told Matsuyama he did not commit any infraction on the par-4 7th. Still, Matsuyama fixed his pitch mark on the green, which looked like he could have improved his lie in the line of play—a two-stroke penalty. But Young and the competition committee felt Matsuyama did not intend to improve his line and thus did not receive any infraction.
Immediately after that juncture, Matsuyama three-putted for a bogey—his first dropped shot since the 2nd hole on Saturday. Two holes later, he continued to feel the nerves, and that discussion may have continued to have an effect on him. Matsuyama found the water at the par-3 14th, and suddenly, what looked like an insurmountable lead had vanished. His bogey there dropped him back to 17-under overall.
Things then got worse for the 2021 Masters Champion. He made a double bogey on the par-4 15th, thus giving up the lead for the first time since early Saturday.
Like that, Hovland sat atop the leaderboard, holding a one-shot advantage with two holes to play after his birdie at 16. But the young Norwegian bogeyed the 17th and missed an excellent birdie look on 18, posting a 4-under 66 to finish at 15-under overall—the winning score of this event over the past two years. Xander Schauffele also finished at 15-under, shooting a 7-under 63 on Sunday to vault into contention.
That still kept the door open for Matsuyama, despite his brutal stretch that saw him drop four shots in five holes. So, he took advantage of the opportunity.
The man from Japan rolled in a 26-footer for birdie to snatch the lead right back at 17. Then he dropped the mic on 18, throwing a dart from 157 yards out to six feet away, leading to a second straight birdie and his second victory of the year. Matsuyama won by two, but it certainly did not come easy, just like the snafu that had occurred earlier in the week in London.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
