Today belonged to Hideki Matsuyama. On a day where play was interrupted by a thunderstorm, and scores were generally not very good, he shot a glorious 65 to seize control of the tournament. Tomorrow he will try to become the first player from Japan to win a men's major golf tournament.
1. H. Matsuyama (JPN): -11 (69+71+65=205)
T2. X. Schauffele: -7 (72+69+68=209)
T2. M. Leishman (AUS): -7 (72+67+70=209)
T2. J. Rose (ENG): -7 (65+72+72=209)
T2. W. Zalatoris: -7 (70+68+71=209)
6. C. Conners (CAN): -6 (73+69+68=210)
7. J. Spieth: -5 (71+68+72=211)
8. B. Harman: -4 (69+69+74=212)
9. T. Finau: -3 (74+66+73=213)
T10. R. MacIntyre (SCO): -2 (74+70+70=214)
T10. S. Kim (KOR): -2 (71+69+74=214)
T10. B. Wiesberger (AUT): -2 (74+66+74=214)
I've always rooted for Hideki Matsuyama, and I'm happy he won.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I will say this for Xander Schauffele--he went for it. I read this morning that his strategy on 16 was to go for a 1 because he so respected Matuyama's iron play and expected him to not give a stroke there. Makes sense.
ReplyDeleteAnd this brings up one last thought I have which is whoever came up with the thing in golf that the player who scores best on the previous hole tees off first on the next hole was really smart. It really makes the person charging on the last day of a tournament stay the aggressor; you can't just react to a leader's collapse.