Matsuyama wins at Firestone with big finish

Hideki Matsuyama won the Bridgestone Invitational with the lowest final round in four decades at Firestone Country Club. Matsuyama birdied his last three holes for a 9-under 61.

Hideki Matsuyama warmed up poorly and then turned in the best round of his career at the Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio, a 9-under 61 that tied the course record and gave him another blowout victory in a World Golf Championship.

It was the lowest final round in four decades at Firestone Country Club and led to a five-shot victory over Zach Johnson.

Matsuyama knew from experience that the course record was a 61 because he was in the same group when Tiger Woods shot 61 in the second round in 2013. All it would take was birdies on the last three holes, and like everything else Sunday, the 25-year-old from Japan made it look easy.

“I knew 61 was the number,” Matsuyama said through his interpreter. “I was thinking about that at 16. I knew if I birdied 16, 17, 18 I could get there.”

He spun a wedge back to 4 feet on the par-5 16th for birdie. He holed an 8-foot putt on the 17th hole and then closed with another approach and settled 6 feet away. Matsuyama, who began the final round two shots behind Johnson and Thomas Pieters, finished at 15-under 265.

He now has won two World Golf Championships by a combined 12 shots, having captured the HSBC Champions by seven shots in Shanghai last fall. It was his fifth PGA Tour victory, and third this season, tying him with Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth.

Johnson, winless since his British Open victory two years ago at St. Andrews, pulled within one shot with a long birdie putt at the 11th, but he could do no better than pars the rest of the way and shot 68.

Pieters was never in the game after missing 4-foot par putts on successive holes to close out the front nine. He closed with a 71.

The only other player with a chance was Char- ley Hoffman, who also was one shot behind on the back nine. Hoffman was three shots behind on the par-5 16th hole when his caddie suggested laying up because there was no place to get it close by going for the green 282 yards away.

“I’m trying to win a tournament,” Hoffman said. “I’m tired of finishing second.”

Women’s British Open

I.K. Kim won the Women’s British Open in St. Andrews, Scotland, hanging on with a 1-under 71 for a two-shot victory and her first major championship.

The victory at Kingsbarns Links comes five years after Kim missed a 14inch putt to win the Kraft Nabisco Championship and then lost in a playoff. She had a six-shot lead going into the final round, and it was hard work.

Jodi Ewart Shadoff of England put enormous pressure on Kim by closing with a 64. She got within two shots of the 29-year- old South Korean, but Kim held her nerve down the closing stretch and closed with nine straight pars.

Kim finished at 18-under 270.

Michelle Wie closed with a 66 and tied for third with Caroline Masson and Georgia Hall.

3MChampionship

Paul Goydos birdied the first playoff hole to win the 3M Championship over Gene Sauers in Blaine, Minnesota.

It is the first PGA Tour Champions win of the season for Goydos and fifth of his career.

Both Goydos and Sauers shot 66 in regulation to get to 20-under 196 at the TPC Twin Cities.

Sauers’ second playoff shot splashed in the lake in front of the 18th green; Goydos cleared the water by less than a yard and twoputted for the win.

Kevin Sutherland shot 64 to tie for third with Steve Stricker (66) and Brandt Jobe (67), two shots back.