2024 Players Championship: Top 10 power rankings at TPC Sawgrass

Hideki Matsuyama continues to stack good results.

It’s not always easy to follow up a win. Matsuyama carded a stunning Sunday 62 at Riviera to come back to win the Genesis Invitational two starts ago.

He took a couple well-earned weeks off before getting back at it on the other side of the U.S. at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Matsuyama opened with 67-70-72 to climb into the top five at Bay Hill. Conditions were tough out there. A closing 76 only dropped him to T-12th.

Japan’s top golfer actually had a great putting week by his standards. He was 24th in Strokes Gained: Putting (.789).

Matsuyama was 13th in SG: Approach (3.009) and 19th in SG: Off-the-Tee (1.393), but he wasn’t quite sharp enough in the thick, juicy greenside rough to hang around late.

Trouble with the short game is a departure from how he’s looked the rest of the season. Matsuyama is fourth on the PGA Tour in SG: Around-the-Green (.659).

He’s finished top-30 in five of seven events in 2024.

The 32-year-old arrives at TPC Sawgrass for the ninth time. Tenth, if you count 2020 where he was the first-round leader before the tournament was canceled due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

No one is immune from missing cuts at the Players Championship if you play it a handful of times. Matsuyama’s made the weekend at a high clip, missing the cut just twice. He only missed by one in 2021 where he nearly overcame an opening 76. A 69 the next day left him one shot outside the number.

Matsuyama was successful in overcoming an over-par number in round one last year and even rose all the way to solo fifth. He carded 74-70-67-68 to reach 9-under.

It was his third top-10 and sixth top-25 on property.