Rocket Mortgage Classic: Top 10 power rankings at Detroit GC

It appears that Hideki Matsuyama is one player whose stock dropped after the COVID-19 hiatus, but I’m here to buy low.

His last three weeks resulted in T-56th and a missed cut. He sat out last week at the Travelers Championship.

Prior to the PGA Tour coming to a halt in March, Matsuyama was riding a streak of nine top-16 finishes in his last 10 starts. He was also in the lead at the Players Championship after a first-round 63.

With a week off to retool after he MC’d at the Heritage, I like him to return to the form he had early in the 2019-2020 season.

Plus, he had a good showing at the inaugural Rocket Mortgage Classic. The pride of Japan fired 68-67-68-70 (-15) to finish T-13th. He finished just four shots back of second place.

Matsuyama hit a healthy 66.07% fairways and 73.61% GIR while averaging 309.9 yards off the tee.

The 28-year-old is not a great putter. We’ve known this for a while. But there’s a sizable difference between ranking, say, 100th on the PGA Tour in strokes gained putting, and where he’s at now at 283rd (-.668).

He’s 36th or better in the rest of the SG categories, including third in tee to green (1.711). Taking advantage of the par-5s is critical this week. Matsuyama ranks 12th in par-5 scoring average (4.5).

He a five-time PGA Tour winner (six if you count the unofficial Hero World Challenge). Matsuyama hasn’t gotten it done since 2017, though. That’s bound to change eventually. He could turn the tide against a relatively weak field this week in Michigan.