Matsuyama roars back for victory at Sony Open
Hideki Matsuyama made up a five-shot deficit on the back nine in Honolulu and then won the Sony Open in a playoff with one of the best shots he never saw, a 3-wood into the sun to 3 feet for an eagle to beat Russell Henley on Sunday.
The eighth career PGA Tour victory for Matsuyama tied him with K.J. Choi for most tour victories by an Asian-born player.
“I got on a roll,” said Matsuyama, who shot 31 on the back nine while Henley made eight pars and a bogey. “I’m glad it came out this way.”
Matsuyama hammered a driver on the par-5 18th in regulation to set up a twoputt birdie for a 7-under 63 and got into a playoff when Henley missed a 10-foot birdie putt and closed with 65.
Back to the 18th for the sudden-death playoff, Matsuyama this time hit 3-wood off the tee with Henley in a fairway bunker. That left him another 3-wood, and he immediately held up his hand to shield the sun and search for the ball.
He didn’t need to see it. One of the larger Sunday galleries at Waialae erupted with cheers as the ball landed about 10 feet in front of the back pin and rolled out to 3 feet for the eagle.
Skiing
Soaring from 29th place after the first run, Lucas Braathen scored a stunning win in a World Cup slalom
in Wengen, Switzerland. No skier had made such a jump up the standings to win a two-run men’s World Cup race for more than 20 years according to the ski-db.com database. In the end, Braathen was 0.22 seconds ahead of Daniel Yule of Switzerland. The 2010 Olympic champion, Giuliano Razzoli of Italy, was 0.29 back in third for his best result in six years at age 37.
• Federica Brignone saw a gutsy run rewarded with the victory in the fifth women’s World Cup super-G of the season in AltenmarktZauchensee, Austria. The Italian gained about threetenths of a second on her rivals with an attacking and risky approach in the middle part of the Kalberloch course.
Winter sports
German sleds swept the medals in the women’s World Cup bobsled finale of the season in St. Moritz, Switzerland, and Elana Meyers Taylor of the U.S. clinched the season-long points title. The U.S. grabbed fourth and fifth. Kaillie Humphries and Sylvia Hoffman finished in 2:15.59, and Meyers Taylor shared her sled with Kaysha Love and crossed the line in 2:16.14.
• Madeleine Egle of Austria was the winner of a World Cup women’s luge race in Oberhof, Germany, her series-best fifth victory of the season. Germany got the next four spots, with Julia Taubitz second and Anna Berreiter third. But Egle topped them all, becoming just the second non-German woman to win at Oberhof in 37 major international races there.
Soccer
The Copa del Rey derby match between Real Betis and Sevilla was suspended in Barcelona, Spain, after an object hurled from the stands hit Sevilla player Joan Jordán in the head. The oblong-shaped object similar to a bar impacted Jordán while Betis was celebrating Nabil Fekir’s 39th-minute equalizer at Benito Villamarín Stadium. Jordán went down immediately, holding his head. He was helped off the pitch just before the teams were ordered by the referee Ricardo de Burgos to follow. After a wait of over 20 minutes, the game was suspended.