Weekly PGA Recap: A Matsuyama Masterclass

This article is part of our Weekly PGA Recap series.

Before Hideki Matsuyama endured a few seasons with debilitating neck and back issues, he was among the top five golfers in the world. Now completely healthy, the Japanese star is a top-5 player once again.

Matsuyama set all sorts of PGA Tour scoring records in shooting a surreal 35-under-par to win the 2025 season-opening, Scottie Scheffler-less Sentry by three strokes over Collin Morikawa on Sunday at Kapalua.

• The 257 total on the par-73 track is the lowest score on Tour (since 1983), bettering by one stroke Cameron Smith when he won the Sentry three years ago.
• The most birdies or better over 72 holes -- 35 (also since 1983). Smith had set the old record of 34 at the 2022 Sentry and was matched by Sungjae Im last year at Kapalua.
• Shooting 192 over 54 holes broke the record set by Smith and Jon Rahm in 2022 at Kapalua.

Matsuyama is now back up to No. 5 in the world rankings, behind only Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy and Morikawa. He had previously peaked at No. 2 OWGR back in 2017.

This might be a good time to say that Matsuyama, know for many things on a golf course including terrible putting, used a new putter this week and ranked third in the field in Strokes Gained: Putting.

Officially, it's a center-shafted Scotty Cameron 009 M Tour Prototype.

"I saw somebody else using it and I thought, 'Oh, this looks good,' so I had them make one, and I'm using it this week," Matsuyama said.

When healthy, all Matsuyama has to do many weeks is just putt decent instead of terrible and he can win. So when he's ranked third in putting in an elite field, well, 35-under is what happens.

Since falling out of the top 50 while enduring those neck and back injuries, Matsuyama has won three times in the past 12 months, and all of them have been big-boy events. He won at Riviera last February and then the FedEx St. Jude playoff event.

World No. 1 Scheffler was not in the field as he recovers from hand surgery, and neither was McIlroy. But just about every other top golfer was at Kapalua, and it would be unfair -- and incorrect -- to say Matsuyama won only because of those absences. After all, both Scheffler and McIlroy played both Riviera and Memphis when Matsuyama won.

We've seen guys switch putters and suddenly become good if not great on the greens. But it's most often unsustainable – a bad putter is a bad putter, period. However, like we said, if Matsuyama can simply go from horrible to less horrible, it can be a win-filled 2025.

"I have goals within myself, and I'm not going to say it right here," Matsuyama said when asked what his goals for 2025 were, "but there are unfinished business that I have set for myself that I still am striving to get to."

He sounds serious. We shall see. 

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Collin Morikawa
One of these years, Morikawa will win at Kapalua. Two years ago, he gagged away a big lead and let Jon Rahm chase him down on Sunday, leaving him as a bitter runner-up. On Sunday, he finished second again. But when you shoot 32-under and lose by three, you just have to tip your hat to the other guy. Morikawa ranked third in the field in SG: Approach and, if that part of his game returns in earnest after falling back last year, the wins will return as well. 

Sungjae Im
Im played outstanding golf over the second half of 2024 and he kept it going to start 2025. He shot an 11-under 62 on Saturday en route to finishing solo third. Im ranked top-5 in the field in SG: Off-the-Tee, Around-the-Green and Putting, surely a good sign for Im backers.

Jhonattan Vegas
Nobody has ever questioned Vegas with the longer clubs in his bag – it's the short ones that give him fits. He led this elite field in SG: Approach in finishing solo fourth. Vegas lost strokes both around the green and on the green, which is far from surprising.

Ludvig Aberg
After playing the second part of 2024 with a knee injury that required surgery in September, Aberg is back at full strength and many expect a breakout season. The 25-year-old Swede showed that is distinctly possible over four days at Kapalua. He finished in a tie for fifth with a balanced game that saw him ranked in the top-20 in every strokes-gained category.

Corey Conners
When Conners leads a strong field in SG: Putting, it leads to two thoughts: 1) Did they make a mistake? And 2) Maybe he can finally join the top echelon of golfers worldwide. Because we all know about his laser-like iron play. Well, Conners did in fact lead this field in putting, gaining more than seven strokes. He only tied for fifth because that iron game was merely average -- ranking 18th in SG: Approach -- and the wedge play was really bad -- 51st in Around-the-Green.

Cameron Young
Young tied for eighth, which, in a 60-man field, is good but maybe not awesome. Still, it was how he did it that should offer optimism for this season. He led the field in SG: Around-the-Green and was second in SG: Putting. If Young can come even close to that during the season, he surely will win his first PGA Tour event and maybe more.

Harry Hall
Hall was among the dozen or so lesser guys in this field who got in by winning a lower-level event. In his case, the ISCO Championship. But Hall did right in representing the little guys. He tied for eighth. And that was with his putter letting him down (ranked 31st in the field). But on approach and especially around the greens, Hall was strong, ranking 11th and second in the field, respectively.

Taylor Pendrith
The Canadian had an albatross on the par-5 fifth hole (6-iron, 203 yards). It's the first ever at the Sentry at Kapalua (since 1999), the 142nd ever on Tour and the first since Nick Hardy last year in Bermuda. Pendrith tied for 13th. 

Keegan Bradley
Rightly or wrongly, Bradley will have a spotlight on him all year leading up to his Ryder Cup captaincy. He finished in a tie for 15th, which was a very respectable start to the season.

Patrick Cantlay
Cantlay ended Thursday at the bottom of the 60-man leaderboard after shooting a 74. He then shot 64-65-68 to wind up in a tie for 15th. Cantlay ranked second in the field in SG: Around-the-Green. This is an important year for Cantlay -- will he finally step up and win a major?

Matt Fitzpatrick
Fitzpatrick took a big slide in 2024, partly because of injury. So he was one of the guys we kept a close eye. He tied for 24th, which doesn't tell us a whole lot. But he was strong off the tee and on the greens.

Max Homa
This tournament was more important for Homa than most others in that he has a lot to prove after falling steadily in 2024. He shot four rounds in the 60s at Kapalua, though that's not a very high bar to clear, and tied for 26th.

Justin Thomas
Thomas normally shines in Hawaii but not this week. He opened with two rounds in the 70s and only a final-round 63 allowed him to climb as high as T26. He ranked seventh in approach, which of course is good. But he was only 37th around the green, an area where usually excels.

Will Zalatoris
Zalatoris bulked up during the offseason. He said he gained about 20 pounds of muscle. It didn't show on the tee, but his normally woeful putting was a plus, gaining strokes and ranking 20th in the field. Zalatoris tied for 26th.

Xander Schauffele
Schauffele opened with a 72 and never got going. He wound up tied for 30th. Schauffele's approach play was fine, ranking eighth in the field. But he lost strokes both around the green and on the green in ranking in the 40s in both categories.

Sahith Theegala
Theegala tied for 36th and one thing to keep an eye on is his wedge play. Two years ago, it was great. Last year, it slipped. In the field of 60 at Kapalua, he lost strokes in SG: Around-the-Green in ranking 33rd. His putting was even worse, losing strokes and ranking 41st in the field.