Matsuyama looks to end a year without contending
AKRON, Ohio — Hideki Matsuyama shot 61 on the final day at Firestone last year to win the Bridgestone Invitational, his sixth victory worldwide in 20 starts. He was among the favorites to win the PGA Championship the following week and nearly pulled it off until Justin Thomas overtook him on the back nine.
That was his last good chance to win a tournament.
Matsuyama returns to this World Golf Championship needing to revive some good memories.
“I started out the new season and I really haven’t played that well,” Matsuyama said Tuesday. “I’ve been grinding and practicing hard. Hopefully, this will be a week that I can catch the magic again and play well.”
Matsuyama, once in the mix to reach No. 1 in the world, now is at No. 16. More troublesome is that he is No. 86 in the FedEx Cup standings with only three tournaments left before the start of the tour’s postseason.
In his four years on the PGA Tour, the 26-year-old Japanese star has never missed the Tour Championship.
“I have some work to do,” Matsuyama said. “I’ve never been in this position before, and so I’ll have to get on my game and play well these last couple of weeks. Hopefully, it will carry through to the Tour Championship.”
Russell Knox was overlooked as a captain’s pick for the Ryder Cup two years ago, and a late surge — runner-up at the French Open, a victory in the Irish Open — has given him a chance to make the European team and at least put him in the conversation as a pick.
Knox had the right perspective when it comes to an event like the Ryder Cup.
“It’s not a goal of mine as much as it’s a reward,” he said after missing the cut at the British Open. “My goal was to play good this week, to try and have my best major finish. Ryder Cup is a reward for good play. Of course, it’s on my goal list, but I’m not focusing on it. I’m focusing on each event and trying to finish off the season.
“So the Ryder Cup, of course, is there,” he said. “It’s like a little diamond hanging there at the end. But I’ve got to take care of a lot of business before that.”
Knox is in the $10 million Bridgestone Invitational from his Irish Open victory, and the money counts toward European points as a World Golf Championship. So do earnings at next week’s PGA Championship, where the prize fund will be at least $10.5 million.
Jason Kokrak closed with a 66 in the RBC Canadian Open, which put him in a five-way tie for 12th. It also might have put him in the PGA Championship.
Chris Kirk had a 76-70 weekend at Glen Abbey, and that might have cost him.
The field for the 100th edition of the PGA Championship was all but set this week, and one of the main categories is the top 70 from a PGA Tour money list that starts and ends with the last two Canadian Opens. Kirk was holding down the 70th spot.
Whee Kim tied for second, moving him from No. 87 to No. 60 and a spot in his first major championship.
Kokrak’s finish was worth $121,500, and it allowed him to go past Kirk by $17,430 to No. 71. That was important because the PGA Championship has set aside two spots from its 156-man field in case the winners of this week’s tournaments are already eligible.
Odds are in Kokrak’s favor. Only three players at the Bridgestone Invitational are not exempt into the PGA. Odds are not in Kirk’s favor, because only nine players from the field at the Barracuda Championship are in the PGA next week at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis.
The USGA and R&A are proposing rules on the green-reading books that are becoming more and more popular. The goal is to force players to read the break on greens based on their skill and judgment instead of books that indicate the degree of slope.
Six weeks of comment started Tuesday. The regulations will be finalized through an interpretation section of Rule 4.3 (use of equipment) and take effect Jan. 1.
“Both the USGA and the R&A are committed to the position that a player’s ability to read their line of play on the putting green is an essential skill that should be retained,” said Thomas Pagel, senior director of rules for the USGA.
David Rickman at the R&A said the green-reading books have so much detail that “they tip the balance too far away from the essential skill and judgment required to read subtle slopes on the greens.”