2022 Fortinet Championship: Top 10 power rankings at Silverado

Hideki Matsuyama’s cashed big paydays in three of four Fortinet Championship starts. Japan’s top golfer’s best finish at this event came in his Silverado debut in 2014. He posted 70-67-69-70 for T-3rd.

He followed it up with T-17th (70-70-69-69) in 2015. Last year, Matsuyama was T-6th in 2021 (69-69-71-66).

In 2021, he ranked third in the field for the week in strokes gained tee to green (10.129). Matsuyama was also ninth in scrambling (80.95%) but just wasn’t rolling in enough birdies.

The 30-year-old just completed one of his best pro seasons on the PGA Tour in 2021-22. He got out of the gate strong with a top-10 at the Fortinet and a win that fall in his home country at the Zozo Championship.

Matsuyama won early in 2022 at the Sony Open in Hawaii before adding three more top-10s, including solo fourth at the U.S. Open

Per round, he ranked sixth on the PGA Tour in SG approach (.711).

He was 27th in total SG (1.015). Scoring’s usually pretty low at this event… Matsuyama is 14th in birdies per round (4.1).

Without LIV golfers like Cameron Smith, Joaquin Niemann, etc. to lean on at next week’s Presidents Cup, it’s imperative Matsuyama is in fine form to give the International team any shot.

Captain Immelman would love to see Hideki get a win the week before. It’s plenty feasible as he’s the top-ranked player in the field per the Official World Golf Rankings.

I see only one player getting in the way, and that’s the defending champion.