NASSAU, Bahamas: Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama outlasted Alex Noren of Sweden in a one-hole playoff to win the Hero World Challenge on Sunday at Albany Golf Course in The Bahamas.
Both players closed with sparkling 8-under-par 64s to finish regulation tied at 22-under 266 before Matsuyama ended it with a laser-tight birdie on the extra hole.
In the playoff, Matsuyama hit a 9-iron that landed a couple of feet from the flag on the 18th hole. Noren had a 20-foot putt that slid left, and Matsuyama tapped in for the title.
When asked what his best shot of the tournament was, Matsuyama had a straightforward answer: the second shot in the playoff.
“Couldn’t make (a) birdie putt on 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18,” Matsuyama said through an interpreter. “So we decided (to) go right at it.”
Austria’s Sepp Straka, who entered Sunday with a one-stroke lead, posted 68 and birdied the last hole to finish solo third at 21 under. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler (68) and J.J. Spaun (65) shared fourth at 20 under, while England’s Justin Rose (66) took sixth at 18 under and Canada’s Corey Conners (65) was 17 under.
“It was a good week,” Straka said after the round. “Came into the week really just trying to see where my game was after working on my swing a little bit in the offseason, working on a few things. Still feels a little bit like a work in progress, but it always is. So really happy with the progress we’ve made over the offseason and yeah, looking forward to continuing to work to the start of next season.”
The small, elite field produced low numbers all week, but Matsuyama completed a bogey-free final round highlighted by a momentum-swinging hole-out eagle from 116 yards on the par-4 10th to catch Straka for a share of the lead.
Matsuyama credited watching Noren, his playing partner, hit a similar shot to helping set up his eagle.
“No. 10, to win we (needed at least) a birdie,” Matsuyama said. “Before he hits the second shot, Alex hits (a) really good shot and I was able to — yeah, I got the great imagination from Alex and (was) able to hit a great shot.”
Scheffler’s bid for a third straight win at the event unraveled on the back nine. Two shots off the lead at the par-5 11th, he found trouble and scrambled for bogey. A bunker-induced bogey at the par-3 12th followed, and Matsuyama’s 30-footer for birdie at No. 13 stretched the gap.
Even so, Scheffler closed with yet another top-five finish in a year that hasn’t seen him finish worse than tied for eighth since The Players Championship way back in March.
“I did a lot of good stuff,” Scheffler said. “Hit the ball pretty nice. Definitely need to be sharper around the greens, but that’s probably a bit of rust. But coming down here is always a good gauge to kind of see where you are around the greens because it’s pretty challenging, so felt pretty good.”
The victory caps a bookend season for Matsuyama, who opened the year by setting the PGA Tour record to par at The Sentry at Kapalua and now collects his second Hero World Challenge in Tiger Woods’ invitational after also winning in 2016.
