Hideki Matsuyama noticed a five-shot lead evaporate in 4 holes earlier than two closing birdies earned him a nervy two-shot win within the FedEx St. Jude Championship.
The occasion varieties a part of the PGA Tour’s season-ending Playoffs, with solely the highest 50 within the general standings advancing to the BMW Championship subsequent week and warranted of entering into all of the $20m signature occasions subsequent 12 months.
England’s Justin Rose was a kind of unlucky to overlook out, sitting fifty fifth, after a closing spherical of 71 noticed him end six below for the week and in a tie for twenty second at TPC Southwind in Memphis.
The fiftieth and closing spot went to US Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley, who was projected simply exterior the cut-off for a lot of Sunday.
Norway’s Viktor Hovland (tied-second), Nick Dunlap (tied-fifth) and Eric Cole (tied-18th) moved into the highest 50 with spectacular closing rounds, significantly Cole, who did it in model with a 63 to share the joint-low spherical of seven below with Xander Schauffele and Max Greyserman.
In the meantime, falling out of the highest 50 had been Tom Kim, Mackenzie Hughes and Jake Knapp, whereas Rose remained 5 locations adrift in fifty fifth.
Kim was poised to advance till it took him two pictures to get out of a greenside bunker on the par-five sixteenth which kick-started a bogey, double-bogey, double-bogey end and left him in 51st and simply on the skin of qualification.
In the meantime, on the prime finish of the FedEx St. Jude leaderboard, Matsuyama completed 17 below, two strokes higher off than Schauffele and Viktor Hovland regardless of an almighty scare down the again 9.
Matsuyama carried a five-stroke lead into Sunday – the biggest 54-hole benefit of his profession – however he faltered down the stretch.
After enjoying his first 11 holes two below, he endured a bogey, par, bogey, double-bogey stretch from holes 12 by means of 15, permitting Schauffele and Hovland to briefly cross him.
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Schauffele was eight below – 9 strokes behind Matsuyama – to start his spherical. He made his cost with a bogey-free spherical and practically chipped in off the inexperienced on 18 to make the ultimate gap even more durable for Matsuyama.
However Matsuyama finally clinched victory with a back-to-back birdie end on the seventeenth and 18th holes, the latter regardless of it enjoying because the hardest gap on the course.
It’s Matsuyama’s tenth profession PGA Tour title and comes after a pre-tournament theft in London that left him with out his caddie and coach, who misplaced their passports within the theft and needed to return to Japan.
World No 1 Scottie Scheffler (66) completed alone in fourth at 14 below.
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