Hideki Matsuyama began the day 6 strokes off the lead. When all was said and done, he became not only the 2024 Genesis Invitational winner, but also the winningest Asian-born golfer in PGA Tour history.
Matsuyama carded a 9-under 62 final round to set a record for the lowest closing round by a winner in Riviera history. With the victory, the 31 year old moves one win clear of South Korea’s K.J. Choi for the most PGA Tour wins by an Asian born golfer.
“Reaching nine wins was one of my big goals, passing K.J. Choi,” Matsuyama told reporters following his victory. “After my eighth win, I’ve been struggling with my back injury. There were a lot of times where I felt I was never going to win again. I struggled reaching to top 10, but I’m really happy that I was able to win today.”
The previous low final round at the course was a 63 carded back in 1986 by Doug Tewell.
“To win in this tournament was one of my goals ever since I became pro,” Matsuyama said. “After Tiger became the host, that goal became a lot bigger. A little disappointed that I wasn’t able to take a picture with Tiger today.”
The native of Ehime, Japan finished at 17-under (267), three strokes clear of Will Zalatoris and Luke List. Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele each struggled to keep pace with Matsuyama and had to settle for a 4th place tie alongside Canadian Adam Hadwin.
After struggling with neck and back injuries over the last two years, Matsuyama saw his world golf ranking drop outside the top 50. However with the Genesis Invitational victory, the 2021 Masters winner will take home $4M from the tournament’s $20M purse, and will move to the 20th ranked spot in the world in next week’s rankings.
Photo: Dan Perry. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.