Weekly PGA Recap: Matsuyama Masters Riviera

This article is part of our Weekly PGA Recap series.

There were so many jaw-dropping moments at this year's Genesis Invitational -- from Tiger Woods withdrawing during the second round to Jordan Spieth being disqualified Friday to Patrick Cantlay hemorrhaging 18-, 36- and 54-hole leads that led to a five-way logjam atop the leaderboard on the back nine Sunday.

And then came one final seismic plot twist, one that nobody saw coming. While it wasn't the biggest stunner of the week, it will go down as the most historic. Hideki Matsuyama fired a nine-birdie, zero-bogey 62 for the best final round ever shot at Riviera. He overcame a six-stroke deficit at the start of the day and broke from the pack at the end for a three-shot victory over Will Zalatoris and Luke List.

Cantlay, Zalatoris and List all had the lead to themselves at some point on Sunday, and they were part of that five-way L.A. traffic jam with Matsuyama and Xander Schauffele.

Matsuyama birdied the first three holes of the day to get into the conversation and then six more on the back nine -- including two approach shots for the ages -- to win for the first time in more than two years. That stretch coincided with a debilitating neck injury that just didn't go away.

"Since the start of this year, it's been getting better, a lot better," Matsuyama told reporters through an interpreter in the Riviera media center. "There's no -- it's stress free when I'm sleeping, too, so I think I had this feeling of I can do something special maybe this year."

Matsuyama had fallen outside the top-50 in the world rankings, to 55th, for the first time in more than a decade. He hadn't won since the Sony Open in January 2022. This was his ninth PGA Tour win, surpassing the mark he shared with K.J. Choi for most PGA Tour victories by an Asian-born golfer.

If his neck injury is truly gone, we could see the return of a golfer once ranked second in the world and one of the world's best ball strikers over the past decade. That golfer surely was on display on Sunday.

On No. 15, Matsuyama hit a 6-iron from 189 yards to eight inches for a tap-in birdie. He was even better on the next hole, the par-3 160-yard 16th, landing his tee ball six inches from the cup for two of most laser-like approaches you'll ever see. 

"On 15, tee shot, second shot, perfect shot," said Matsuyama, explaining things succinctly.

Matsuyama kept his foot on the gas, birdieing the par-5 17th with a chip to three feet before parring 18, leaving him one shy of the Riviera course record of 61 shot by Tom Tryba in the third round of the 1999 Nissan Open.

Matsuyama has now zoomed back up to No. 20 in the world. We've seen what a pain-free Matsuyama has done in the past and now maybe what he can do in the future. The Masters is now less than two months away. Matsuyama, as you know, already owns a green jacket.

The only thing that went wrong for him on Sunday was that Woods was not around to congratulate him after WDing on Friday with the flu and flying home.

"To win in this tournament was one of my goals ever since I became pro," Matsuyama said. "After Tiger being the host, that goal became a lot bigger. A little disappointed that I wasn't able to take a picture with Tiger today."

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Tiger Woods
It wasn't his back, or his leg, or any body part that derailed Woods' first start PGA Tour start in 10 months. No, he got the flu and left after six holes on Friday. He had been playing decently to that point – five birdies and six bogeys on Thursday -- though it's not known when the symptoms started to affect his game. This was all such a huge letdown for Woods, for the Tour, for golf fans on site and watching on TV. The good news, if there is any, is that it was an illness and not another injury. But with Woods, it now seems that it's always something. We should see him next in less than a month at THE PLAYERS Championship. From here on out, it will all be about preparing for the Masters in less than two months.

Jordan Spieth
Spieth inexplicably signed an incorrect scorecard after Friday's round and stunningly was disqualified. It set off a controversy in golf circles: In this day and technological age, should golfers even be responsible for their own score? Should they get disqualified for an accident? Some argued a two-stroke penalty would be a punishment more befitting of the crime. But the golf purists would have none of it, arguing that rules are rules and these have been the rules forever and golf is different from other sports and blah, blah, blah, without offering any reasoning other than what is tantamount to "because." It happens very rarely, and it was a huge deal only because it was Spieth as opposed to, say, Alex Smalley. Spieth took full responsibility, as he should have. But dozens and dozens of golf rules have changed through the years, so it's not like there isn't precedent. We think the two-stroke penalty would be a fair compromise. As for Spieth's game, he shot 66 on Thursday and 73 on Friday for a very Spiethian performance that can be the best of the best or pretty bad.

Will Zalatoris
Zalatoris' recovery from back surgery appears to be complete. In just his fifth tournament back, he tied for second and has soared up to No. 32 in the world. Zalatoris disclosed afterward that was playing with a heavy heart, after the sudden passing of an undisclosed family member. He is now safely inside the threshold to play in future Signature Events, beginning next month at Bay Hill. As such, Zalatoris has withdrawn from this week's Mexico Open. He ranked 15th in the field in SG: Putting. While it was a very small field, that has to be quite encouraging for one of the game's best ball strikers.

Luke List
List had a two-stroke lead on the front after putting like he's rarely putted before. While he ended the tournament leading the field in SG: Putting, List bogeyed 10, 12 and 15 to wind up tied for second. Still a great week, one that moved him to 57th in the OWGR.

Patrick Cantlay
Cantlay's coach, Jamie Mulligan, said Cantlay woke up Sunday morning with a temperature over 100 degrees, according to Golf Injury Report on X/Twitter. In light of that, we do have to give him a pass, and even have to consider that he might've also been under the weather during his so-so Saturday. Still, the tie for fourth was Cantlay's best showing in the early going of 2024. 

Xander Schauffele
Schauffele played his way into the final group with good buddy Cantlay on Sunday, and he tied for the lead with a remarkable eagle from the sand on No. 11. He then promptly bogeyed the next three holes and that was that. Schauffele has played well so far in 2024, but he has not won in about 19 months, since the 2022 Scottish Open.

Adam Hadwin
Hadwin had a 67-65 weekend to tie for fourth and move back inside the top-50 in the world, at 45th.

Harris English
English shot four rounds in the 60s and wound up solo seventh. We liked him in our DraftKings picks because he does everything pretty well, and some things very well. That was the case across four days at Riviera, where English ranked 12th in SG: Off-the-Tee, 27th in Approach, ninth in Around-the-Green and fifth in Putting. He led the field in driving accuracy. Just a very solid player who will contend more during this season.

Tom Hoge
Hoge's strength is his iron play, and he was crushing it all week at Riviera. He led the field in the most important stat of them all, SG: Approach, and he finished solo eighth on the leaderboard. You would think that a player like Hoge would be a steady presence every week, but that hasn't been the case. He has up weeks and many down weeks, too.

Jason Day
Day hung around all week despite some terrible putting and ended up solo ninth. He now has top-10s in his past two starts (T6 Pebble Beach).

Scottie Scheffler
Scheffler tied for 10th. He didn't putt well, ranking 51st in the field. That was to be expected. But he also ranked 33rd on approach, and when you consider that, it's a marvel he even finished in the top-10. Scheffler's wedge saved him all week, chipping in multiple times for eagle and ranking first in the field in SG: Around-the-Green. But he clearly needs to do something about his putting, and he has three weeks till we should see him next at Bay Hill.

Eric Cole
Cole has played the first seven weeks of the season and really shows no sign of slowing down (though he will skip this week's Mexico Open). He finished as part of a six-way tie for 10th.

Viktor Hovland
Hovland, who has finished in the top five here twice before, never really got anything going in any part of his game and tied for 19th. A very surprising and disappointing week.

Ludvig Aberg
Aberg was hotly touted coming into the tournament, even though he had never played it before. You need course knowledge and experience at Riviera. Aberg tied for 19th, and that was about as good as could be expected, even from him.

Rory McIlroy
McIlroy did well to reach the weekend after opening with a dreadful 74. But he was never a factor. After taking a week off, we should see McIlroy at three straight tournaments in the Florida Swing after stating he intends to play much more heading into Augusta this year.

Rickie Fowler
Fowler has been a huge disappointment this season and this week's tie for 35th in a field in which only 51 guys made the cut will not change any of that.

Gary Woodland
Woodland not only was granted a sponsor invite by Woods, he was paired with him, and Justin Thomas, on Thursday and Friday. He was the only one of the three to reach the weekend. Woodland made a cut for the first time since returning from brain surgery and tied for 39th.

Cam Davis
Davis was 9-under through 27 holes and wound 2-over for the week. That is one brutal T49.

Chase Johnson
Johnson might've been the first Charlie Sifford exemption at this tournament to get to Saturday. He wound up last among the players who made the cut, but that is not important. It was a great week for him. Johnson announced he'll be at PGA National for the newly named Cognizant Classic in the Palm beaches (nee Honda Classic) in two weeks.

MISSED CUTS

Justin Thomas, Matt Fitzpatrick, Sepp Straka, Chris Kirk. Only 17 guys missed the cut in traditional fashion, joining Woods and Spieth to make it 19 total. Thomas was the lone big surprises, as he had been playing so well going back to last August. His putting remains a real issue. He lost more than 2 and a half strokes to the field in just two rounds.