2020 Houston Open: Top 10 power rankings at Memorial Park

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Oct 24, 2020; Thousand Oaks, California, USA; Hideki Matsuyama walks down the fairway of the 18th hole during the third round of the Zozo Championship golf tournament at Sherwood Country Club. Mandatory Credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports /

If consistency is your kind of thing, Hideki Matsuyama’s got it of late. Since golf’s restart in June, the star of Japanese golf has collected 10 top-30 finishes in 13 starts. That includes a pair of top-25s at the majors.

Not only is he making the weekend on the regular, but he’s collecting good checks while he’s at it.

So what’s the catch? Why aren’t we seeing much of Matsuyama on TV broadcasts?

Well, it would be the fact that he’s cracked the top 10 just once in the last four months. That was a T-3rd at the BMW Championship.

Matsuyama is coming off a T-28th at the Zozo Championship a couple weeks ago. It was too bad this event wasn’t in Japan as originally scheduled. He was solo second behind Tiger Woods in the inaugural 2019 edition.

The 28 year old is one of the game’s best iron players. Matsuyama ranked in the top 10 in strokes gained approach every since he joined the PGA Tour full time in 2013-14. He was fifth last season (.69).

Matsuyama can be wayward off the tee, but Memorial Park looks short enough that he could go with less off the tee to get in good shape. He was ninth in proximity from the fairway in 2019-20 (28’9”).

The real key is getting the putter to cooperate. It’s the main culprit for his winless streak since 2017. Perhaps everyone playing new greens this week will be a neutralizer for Matsuyama.

Either way, expect another solid finish from the ball striking extraordinaire.

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