2024 Arnold Palmer Invitational: Top 10 power rankings at Bay Hill

Hideki Matsuyama is teeing it up for the first time since his dazzling Sunday 62 led to a comeback victory at the Genesis Invitational.

He was brilliant all week with four rounds in the 60s at Riviera, but shooting one off the course record in the final round is transcendent.

That was Matsuyama’s fourth top-30 in six starts in 2024.

Getting that win meant a lot to Matsuyama, who has battled injuries throughout his career. He’s fought through them to become one of the best Asian golfers in history.

“...reaching nine wins was one of my big goals, passing K.J. Choi,” Matsuyama was transcribed by Tee Scripts. “After my eighth win I've been struggling with my back injury. There were a lot of times where I felt, you know, I was never going to win again. I struggled reaching to top-10, but I'm really happy that I was able to win today.”

He’s now arrived at the Arnold Palmer Invitational for the 10th time. He’s made seven cuts in nine tries with four top-25s. High water mark was T-6th in 2016.

Matsuyama ranks second on the PGA Tour in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green (.818). He’s gaining strokes in every category except, you guessed it, putting.

Fortunately, Bay Hill is more of an execution test than a putting contest. Matsuyama is a skilled enough ball striker to pull off the difficult shots this week asks of golfers.

He can also glean confidence from his performance on the greens at Riviera. Matsuyama was third in the field in SG: Putting (4.298) to go with ranks of third in SG: Around-the-Green (5.831) and top-20s in SG: off-the-Tee (1.116) and SG: Approach (2.039).

Everyone’s going to miss some greens, though. He’s a solid 38th in scrambling (66.38%).