It is surely fair to say that Hideki Matsuyama’s desire to remain out of the limelight has meant that he, at times, has become the forgotten man in that elite tier of golfers on the PGA Tour.
Hideki Matsuyama is a major champion, is into double figures for wins on the PGA Tour, and has been as high as second in the world golf rankings during his career. And yet, there is absolutely no fanfare about the way he goes about his business on the course.
Matsuyama showed little emotion as he holed out for eagle from 107 yards during the final round of The Sentry on Sunday. And the 32-year-old went on to break the record for the lowest score in PGA Tour history as he won the event on 35 under par.
Of course, Matsuyama is rightly viewed as one of the best iron players in the current game. Many will remember some of the approach shots he produced on Sunday on his way to winning the Genesis Invitational last year.
The sneakily good part of Hideki Matsuyama’s game as he wins The Sentry
But it appears that there is another part of his game which has the potential to be world-class. Speaking on The First Cut podcast, Mark Immelman noted that Matsuyama is hard to keep up with when he gets hot with the flat stick.
“We all know he can flush an iron, and when he’s off, he’ll hit it to like 20, 25 feet, and you’ll see the one arm followthrough and stuff. He’s a sneaky underrated putter. And to me, when he starts to get a little faster on the greens, there’s less kind of gyrations when he’s over address, you start to see him roll the ball with some conviction,” he said.
“And the dominant performances; he’s had three victories in the last 12 months I think it is. Genesis, the LA open there at Riviera, he made a number of putts and flushed it. Then he wins at Memphis, he hit the ball beautifully around there, made a lot of those 10, 15 foot putts. And this week, I was watching him going, ‘wow, he’s making putts’. All of a sudden, that little stretch where he misses a few short ones, but overall, he made some quality putts today.
“And the thing about it to me was that I didn’t see this indecision as he’s trying to find posture, trying to find comfort. And man, that putt he made on the last, to me was almost emblematic of what everything was. The ball was on the line, tracking, good speed. And so, this is the guy I expect to see.”
How Matsuyama performed on the greens at The Sentry
Matsuyama definitely had an extremely impressive week on the greens at Kapalua. He actually finished 121st on the PGA Tour for strokes gained putting in 2024 – which speaks to Immelman’s point about the inconsistency.
Certainly, some will remember Matsuyama missing some crucial putts on Saturday at last year’s Presidents Cup as he went on to lose both of his matches on that day at Royal Montreal.
But this past week saw the best of him again. Matsuyama was third for strokes gained on the greens in Maui, while he was second for approach play.
| Round | Hideki Matsuyama’s strokes gained putting rank at The Sentry |
| Round One | 9th |
| Round Two | 26th |
| Round Three | 15th |
| Round Four | 12th |
| Total | 3rd |
Given that the scoring at The Sentry is always low, it is hard to know how much can be taken from the curtain-raiser. But Matsuyama is someone who has the quality to win a lot more frequently, so this could well prove to be a statement of intent.
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