The Rising Son: Hideki wins World Challenge

HIDEKI MATSUYAMA was only 5 when he first saw Tiger Woods, watching on videotape that 1997 Masters victory. Even sweeter was standing next to Woods in his Sunday red shirt to receive yet another trophy.

Right now, the Japanese star can't seem to lose. The return of Tiger Woods ended with Matsuyama winning his third straight tournament, and fourth out of his last five, in the Hero World Challenge.

“I can't say that I played well today, but I did win Tiger's tournament,'' Matsuyama said. “And what a great honor that is.''

Matsuyama had a few nervous moments on the back nine at Albany when his seven-shot lead at the start of the final round was reduced to two shots over British Open champion Henrik Stenson with two to play.

Matsuyama closed with two pars for a 1-over 73 and a two-shot victory. Woods found plenty of positives from his first tournament in more than 15 months, though the final round featured three double bogeys and a 76 – the highest score of the tournament – that dropped him to 15th place out of 17 players.

Matsuyama is moving up in class quickly. His big run started with a threeshot victory in the Japan Open. He was runner-up in Malaysia, then became the first Asian to win a World Golf Championships title with a seven-shot victory over Stenson and Daniel Berger in the HSBC Champions. Two weeks later, he won the Taiheiyo Masters on the Japan Golf Tour by seven. And except for a few mistakes on the back nine at Albany, this was another runaway.

“It's going to give him a boat load of confidence going into next year, and he's going to be one of the top guys to beat for a very long time,” Woods said. Matsuyama, who finished at 18-under 270, won $1 million and remained at No. 6 in the world. He ended his streak of 17 consecutive founds in the 60s, though all that mattered was the trophy presentation with Woods.