Hideki Matsuyama has confirmed nerves of metal after nearly blowing a five-stroke lead within the last spherical of the 2024 St. Jude Championship to say a two-shot victory.
Matsuyama, who received bronze on the Olympics earlier this month, entered the final day at TPC Southwind in a cushty place with the most important 54-hole margin of the season.
However his lead was rapidly trimmed to 4 when he missed a birdie from 10 ft as Nick Dunlap, who was Matsuyama’s closest rival, opened with a birdie to shut the hole.
Nonetheless, Matsuyama was in a robust place, particularly as Dunlap began to have problems with his personal changing from shut vary, lacking a seven-foot birdie to remain 4 off the lead.
FINAL LEADERBOARD: The place everybody completed on the FedEx St. Jude Championship
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Matsuyama’s lead was again to 5 strokes coming into the ultimate 9 holes of the day, however that was the place it began to take a flip for the Japanese star.
The chief bogeyed on the twelfth and 14th holes earlier than a double bogey on the fifteenth abruptly had Matsuyama trailing as Victor Hovland and Xander Schauffele surged.
Hovland had six birdies and two bogeys on the day to stand up the leaderboard however it was Schauffele’s rise to competition that was notably spectacular given he began the spherical 9 behind Matsuyama.
The American was faultless on Monday, recording seven birdies to complete with a final-round 63 and enter the clubhouse with the lead at 15-under general.
That lead was rapidly in jeopardy as a formidable Hovland shot from the tough on the 18th gap put him simply 9 ft away from a birdie that will have knocked Schauffele out of competition.
Hovland couldn’t convert, nevertheless, leaving him tied alongside Schauffele at 15-under heading into the clubhouse.
He didn’t have the lead although, with Matsuyama recovering to empty a clutch birdie from past 25 ft on the seventeenth, giving him a one-stroke lead heading into the ultimate — and most tough — gap on the course.
However Matsuyama confirmed no indicators of hesitation on the 18th with an enormous shot to set himself up for a birdie and he drained it to seal the win.
The victory vaulted him 5 spots up the FedEx Cup rankings to 3rd place.
The High 50 gamers in these rankings after Monday’s last spherical went by way of to subsequent week’s BMW Championship, the place that quantity might be trimmed right down to the High 30 forward of the Tour Championship, the place there might be a share of US$100 million (A$151m) within the FedEx Cup Playoffs prize pool on the road.
So, which Australians are nonetheless within the operating?
HOW DID THE AUSTRALIANS FARE?
Effectively, three of 4 Australians have progressed to subsequent week’s BMW Championship, with Min Woo Lee the one one to overlook out regardless of a robust last day on the course.
Lee went into the match sitting 62nd and needing to complete in a two-way tie for seventeenth at minimal to leap into the highest 50.
He hit a four-under par 66 on the ultimate spherical to complete in a tie for twenty second at four-under general, however that was solely adequate to see him sit sixtieth within the FedEx Cup standings.
Jason Day was the best-placed of the Australians at twenty sixth place heading to TPC Southwind and completed degree with Lee, which was greater than sufficient to see him transfer on.
Day is the one Australian at the moment sitting contained in the High 30 coming into the BMW Championship, the place that’s the cut-off for shifting onto the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Membership in Atlanta.
Adam Scott and Cam Davis have been removed from assured a top-50 end within the FedEx Cup standings earlier than this weekend, sitting forty sixth and forty fourth respectively.
Scott fired a three-under par 67 within the last spherical to complete in a tie for 18th on the leaderboard, shifting him as much as forty first within the FedEx Cup standings.
It was a a lot nearer name for Davis, who wanted an enormous day to remain within the operating and in addition completed the spherical three-under to maneuver as much as fortieth general.
Nonetheless, it left Davis ready on different outcomes to see if he would transfer onto the BMW Championship and scraped by way of in forty ninth after Tom Kim, who regarded in a robust place to qualify, bogeyed on his last three holes.
Davis himself had a brutal break on his last gap of the day, sending his tee shot proper after which his second into the water on the way in which to recording a double bogey on the 18th.
FedEx Cup Standings — High 10
1. Scottie Scheffler – 6,532 factors
2. Xander Schauffele – 5,037
3. Hideki Matsuyama – 3,898
4. Collin Morikawa – 2,595
5. Rory McIlroy – 2,558
6. Wyndham Clark – 2,503
7. Ludvig Aberg – 2,146
8. Sahith Theegala – 2,076
9. Patrick Cantlay – 2,016
10. Sungjae Im – 1,950
Yow will discover the total standings and breakdown for each participant right here.