Farmers Insurance Open: The top ten performances at Torrey Pines
By Bill Felber
Hideki Matsuyama is one of a large number of players who could break through to stardom any day now. For Matsuyama, it’s been that way since he won as a rookie in 2014. Since then he’s added three more victories, but none since the Bridgestone in August of 2017.
That was two months after he made a run at the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills, eventually tying for second, four strokes behind Brooks Koepka.
His tie for third at the Farmers Insurance Open means it’s once again time to ask: Is this Matsuyama’s year?
In 2018, he was a player with neither a weakness nor an obvious advantage. His strength lay in his consistency, his Strokes Gained averages ranging from +.132 on the greens to +.727 approaching the greens.
Week-to-week, that balance gave Matsuyama lots of avenues to get hot…but also lots of avenues to be so-so. The latter outcome usually prevailed.
At the Farmer’s, the strongest aspect of Matsuyama’s game stepped forward. He gained an average of 1.745 strokes on the field in his approach game, and that element fueled his rise to contention. The remainder of Matsuyama’s play was typical; he performed marginally above his 2018 averages in Strokes Gained Off The Tee, Around The Green and Putting.
The result was a Matsuyama Version 2.0 who was about two strokes better than his 2018 average. He’s got the game to do that pretty much any week.