by Ed Smith @edsmith7133
On Sunday, Hideki Matsuyama won the Genesis Invitational by three shots with a near-record score of 62 at the Riviera Golf Course in Los Angeles, California. Ted Tryba set the record score for the course at 61 in 1992.
A tight leaderboard featured a five-way tie around the turn at hole 10. From there, Matsuyama rose above the rest of the field to finish out his day. Though Tiger Woods withdrew on Friday with flu-like symptoms and Jordan Spieth was disqualified due to a miscount on his scorecard, both unexpected twists were overshadowed by Matsuyama’s final round, which saw approach shots on the par four hole 15 and par three hole 16 both land within 10” of the cup. In addition, his final round featured three bogey-free stretches of three birdies to finish with a total of minus nine on the par seventy-one course that was first built in 1926.
Matsuyama Takes Out Competitors
Going into the final round, Patrick Cantlay led the field by three strokes. However, he couldn’t hold that lead as Adam Hadwin (-6 in Round four), Luke List (-3 in Round four), Will Zalatoris (-2 in Round four), and Matsuyama all shot under par while Cantlay shot +1 to land in a tie for fourth place with Hadwin. Second place ended in a tie with Zalatoris and List at -14.
Fans eagerly anticipated this tournament as the first that Tiger Woods was scheduled to compete in since last year’s Masters due to injuries and recovery time. Woods was plus-one through the first round despite some back spasms that troubled him through his last few shots. Friday didn’t get any easier for Tiger as flu-like symptoms cut his day short after the sixth hole. He was taken back to the clubhouse to get an intravenous drip before leaving the facilities.
Controversy rippled through the tournament when Jordan Spieth signed an incorrect scorecard after miscounting his shots on hole 18 in round two. Spieth’s great ball striking couldn’t save him from the rules analysis, which removed him from the rest of the weekend.
But the real story by the end of Sunday was Matsuyama, who won his first tournament since the 2022 Sony Open. This will serve as a springboard for him going into the next six weeks, which include The Players Championship and leads up to the Masters in mid-April.