Hideki Matsuyama

Matsuyama turned professional in April 2013 and won his second professional tournament, the 2013 Tsuruya Open on the Japan Golf Tour. Five weeks later, Matsuyama won his third title on the Japan Golf Tour at the Diamond Cup Golf tournament. Following a top 10 finish at the 2013 U.S. Open, Matsuyama entered the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking. He won his fourth Japan Golf Tour event in September at the Fujisankei Classic. Matsuyama would win his fifth Japan Golf Tour event in December at the Casio World Open. The win also made Matsuyama the first rookie to lead the Japan Tour's money list.

For 2014, Matsuyama qualified for the PGA Tour through non-member earnings. In just seven PGA Tour-sanctioned events, Matsuyama had six top-25 finishes, including a T-6 at the 2013 Open Championship.

Matsuyama earned his first PGA Tour win at the 2014 Memorial Tournament, beating Kevin Na in a playoff and moving to a career-high OWGR ranking of 13th. The win was the first for a Japanese player since Ryuji Imada in 2008. In his first full season as a PGA tour member, he finished 28th in the FedEx Cup standings.[8]

Matsuyama would win his sixth Japan Golf Tour event late in the 2014 season. In November, the victory came at the Dunlop Phoenix in a playoff over Hiroshi Iwata.

Matsuyama finished fifth at the 2015 Masters Tournament, the best major finish of his career.[9] He finished 16th in the FedEx Cup standings. In 8–11 October, he played for the International Team in the 2015 Presidents Cup and went 2–1–1 (win–loss–half).

On 7 February 2016, Matsuyama won the Waste Management Phoenix Open in a playoff with Rickie Fowler. He secured his victory on the fourth hole.[10] The win moved him to 12th in the Official World Golf Ranking, the highest in his career.

On 16 October 2016, Matsuyama captured the Japan Open by three strokes over Yuta Ikeda and Lee Kyoung-hoon. The win was Matsuyama's first title at his country's national open and his seventh victory in Japan. The title gives Matsuyama victories in four of the Japan Golf Tour's five ￥200,000,000 events.[11]

On 30 October 2016, Matsuyama followed up his Japan Open triumph by winning the WGC-HSBC Champions, colloquially known as "Asia's Major", in Shanghai. Matsuyama became the first Asian golfer to claim a World Golf Championship since the series was inaugurated in 1999. With the victory, Matsuyama rose to number 6 in the Official World Golf Ranking, his highest position and the second highest ever by a Japanese player after Masashi Ozaki, who achieved a ranking of fifth.[12] He later moved up to fifth in the world after the Farmers Insurance Open.

On 13 November 2016, Matsuyama won his second Taiheiyo Masters, following his victory as a 19-year-old amateur in 2011. He romped to a seven-shot win over South Korea's Song Young-han.[12]

On 4 December 2016, Matsuyama won the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.

In Matsuyama's return to the Waste Management Phoenix Open, he again entered a playoff on Sunday to defend his title, this time against Webb Simpson. On the fourth playoff hole, Matsuyama made birdie to win the tournament for the second time in as many years. After finishing second in the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills, while the top three players in the world at the time (Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy and Jason Day) failed to make the cut, Matsuyama reached 2nd in the Official World Golf Ranking, his highest ever, and the highest ever for a male Japanese golfer.

The 2017 season has been a breakthrough year with Matsuyama winning three Tour titles, including his first World Golf Championship, and three second-place finishes in his first 15 events, as well as winning $5,945,990, putting him second on the money list behind Dustin Johnson, before the month of July. He then won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in August, shooting a course record-tying 61 in the final round to win by five strokes.[13]

At the 2017 PGA Championship, Matsuyama continued his excellent form with opening rounds of 70-64 to share the 36-hold lead, with Kevin Kisner at Quail Hollow.

In December 2019, Matsuyama played on the International team at the 2019 Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia. The U.S. team won 16–14. Matsuyama went 2–1–1 and halved his Sunday singles match against Tony Finau.[14]

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	1 Jun 2014	Memorial Tournament	−13 (70-67-69-69=275)	Playoff	Kevin Na
2	7 Feb 2016	Waste Management Phoenix Open	−14 (65-70-68-67=270)	Playoff	Rickie Fowler
3	30 Oct 2016	WGC-HSBC Champions	−23 (66-65-68-66=265)	7 strokes	Daniel Berger, Henrik Stenson
4	5 Feb 2017	Waste Management Phoenix Open (2)	−17 (65-68-68-66=267)	Playoff	Webb Simpson
5	6 Aug 2017	WGC-Bridgestone Invitational	−16 (69-67-67-61=264)	5 strokes	Zach Johnson

PGA Tour playoff record (3–0)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent	Result
1	2014	Memorial Tournament	Kevin Na	Won with par on first extra hole
2	2016	Waste Management Phoenix Open	Rickie Fowler	Won with par on fourth extra hole
3	2017	Waste Management Phoenix Open	Webb Simpson	Won with birdie on fourth extra hole

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	13 Nov 2011	Mitsui Sumitomo Visa Taiheiyo Masters (as an amateur)	−13 (71-64-68=203)*	2 strokes	Toru Taniguchi
2	28 Apr 2013	Tsuruya Open	−18 (69-63-68-66=266)	1 stroke	David Oh
3	2 Jun 2013	Diamond Cup Golf	−9 (71-69-68-71=279)	2 strokes	Brendan Jones, Park Sung-joon, Kim Hyung-sung
4	8 Sep 2013	Fujisankei Classic	−9 (66-70-66-73=275)	Playoff	Park Sung-joon, Hideto Tanihara
5	1 Dec 2013	Casio World Open	−12 (72-66-68-70=276)	1 stroke	Yuta Ikeda
6	23 Nov 2014	Dunlop Phoenix Tournament	−15 (68-64-67-70=269)	Playoff	Hiroshi Iwata
7	16 Oct 2016	Japan Open Golf Championship	−5 (71-70-65-69=275)	3 strokes	Yuta Ikeda, Lee Kyoung-hoon
8	13 Nov 2016	Mitsui Sumitomo Visa Taiheiyo Masters (2)	−23 (65-66-65-69=265)	7 strokes	Song Young-han

*Note: The 2013 Mitsui Sumitomo Visa Taiheiyo Masters was shortened to 54 holes due to weather.

• The Japan Open Golf Championship is also a Japan major championship.

Japan Golf Tour playoff record (2–0)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent(s)	Result
1	2013	Fujisankei Classic	Park Sung-joon, Hideto Tanihara	Won with birdie on second extra hole
2	2014	Dunlop Phoenix Tournament	Hiroshi Iwata	Won with par on first extra hole

• Most consecutive cuts made – 8 (2014 U.S. Open – 2016 Masters)
• Longest streak of top-10s – 2 (2013 U.S. Open – 2013 Open Championship)

Results not in chronological order prior to 2015.

¹Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic

WD = Withdrew
QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
NT = no tournament
"T" = tied