Hideki Matsuyama Defends Title at Waste Management Phoenix Open

After a run on young, fresh faces winning tournaments over the past few weeks, a familiar name came out on top at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Hideki Matsuyama was able to defend the title that he won last year in dramatic fashion.

While he was the favorite to win the tournament from the beginning, Matsuyama still put on quite a show that left all fans happy.  After ending his final 18 holes tied for the lead with Webb Simpson, Matsuyama was able to outlast Simpson by burying a ten-foot birdie putt on the fourth playoff hole.

This capped off another successful year in Phoenix for Matsuyama.  He has played in the Phoenix Open each of the last four seasons, and in all of those starts, Hideki has two victories and two top-five finishes.  Not only did this continue Matsuyama’s success in this one tournament, it also kept his momentum going from other wins he’s had on the Tour this year.  This was Matsuyama’s second win on the PGA TOUR this season and his fourth win overall this year.

Matsuyama was happy to be able to hold out and win in Phoenix for a second straight year and showed his excitement after the hard fought playoff.  “It was a struggle, especially that playoff, but I’m very happy to win,” Matsuyama stated after his victory, “I had faith and believe there was going to be a chance to win it.  And I made it.  I’m going to keep grinding.”

Hideki Matsuyama has defended his title at the @WMPhoenixOpen!

He now has the most PGA TOUR wins by a Japanese player with 4!#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/zsa0RmWPxu

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 5, 2017

Another accomplishment that Matsuyama was able to add to his growing list of achievements is most victories by a Japanese-born player on the PGA TOUR.  He surpassed the previous record of three victories held by Shigeki Maruyama.  The most astounding part of this is that Matsuyama is still only 24 years old and has a chance to continue adding to that total.

Matsuyama is undeniably one of the hottest golfers on the PGA TOUR right now and we will see if he can parlay his momentum into more victories, and possibly the first major championship of his career.

Cover Photo via YouTube