Matsuyama targeting maiden title after victory in Shanghai

Hideki Matsuyama has set his sights on a maiden major title after maintaining his brilliant recent form with an historic victory in the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai yesterday.

Matsuyama carded a flawless closing 66 at Sheshan International to finish 23 under par and become the first Japanese player to win a World Golf Championships title.

The 24-year-old, who won the Japan Open a fortnight ago and was second in Malaysia last week, finished seven shots clear of Open champion Henrik Stenson and American Daniel Berger.

Rory McIlroy moved to second in the world rankings after sharing fourth place with Bill Haas on 15 under, McIlroy having missed from three feet for birdie on the 18th in a closing 66.

Matsuyama took a three-shot lead into the final round and was never in danger of being caught after a front nine of 33, with a hat-trick of birdies from the 13th making certain of his first European Tour title.

“Winning today I feel has got me closer to being able to compete a lot better in the major tournaments,” said Matsuyama, whose win lifts him to a career-high sixth in the world rankings

“So my next goal is, of course, to win a major, and I’m going to do all that I can to prepare well for that.”

Stenson surged through the field with a bogey-free 65 and takes over from Danny Willett at the top of the Race to Dubai, with Masters champion Willett finishing 14 over par and 75th in the 78-man field.

“I was chasing Danny and so was Rory and I could see Rory was going at it,” said Stenson, who started the week more than 400,000 points behind Willett, but ended it 261,387 in front.

McIlroy trails Stenson by more than a million points and has just one event left to play – the seasonending DP World Tour Championship – after withdrawing from next week’s Turkish Airlines Open.

Scot Russell Knox, the defending champion who began the final round three shots off the lead, struggled to a closing 74 to finish in a tie for ninth with Sergio Garcia.

Picture: AP. Hideki Matsuyama poses with the spectator ushers.