Hideki Matsuyama avoids collapse, wins FedEx St. Jude Championship in gutsy fashion

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.

“I wasn’t going for it,” Matsuyama said of 14.

“My target was 20 feet left of the pin. I just hit a bad shot.”

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.

“15 was not good. I flared my tee shot to the right. I didn’t want to hit it in the water, so I ended up hitting it over the green, taking two chips, and ended up with a double bogey,” Matsuyama said.

“But still, I felt I had three holes left, and so I felt like I still had a chance.”

Indeed, he did, but at this point in time, Hovland sat atop the leaderboard, holding a one-shot advantage over Matsuyama with two holes to play. Hovland had just made 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.

“I felt today’s victory slipping away at that point because 17 and 18 are difficult holes enough, let alone to birdie them,” Matsuyama.

“But I was fortunate enough to birdie 17. Immediately, I thought, ‘Oh, man, this is going to be a tough tee shot at 18. I’ve got to keep it in the fairway.’ I’m grateful I was able to do it.”

He dropped the mic on 18, throwing a dart from 157 yards out to six feet away, leading to a dramatic yet impressive finish. He closed with two straight birdies, which surprised him even more than his collapse. Matsuyama did not think he could rebound like he did, yet he came up clutch when needed.

It will go down in the history books as a Matsuyama victory by two, but it certainly did not come easily, like the snafu that 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.