The 2016 Hero World Challenge marked the return of Tiger Woods to competitive golf after 466 days. However, it was rising young star Hideki Matsuyama from Japan who would steal the show. With a total score of 18 under par, Hideki would win the tournament by two shots, his fourth victory in his last five worldwide starts!
He can’t seem to do any wrong right now. His current run started with a three-shot victory at the Japan Open, followed by a runner-up in Malaysia at the CIMB Classic. He then became the first Asian winner of a World Golf Championship title with a seven-shot victory over Henrik Stenson and Daniel Berger at the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai.
Two weeks later, Matsuyama would win the Taiheiyou Masters on the Japan Golf Tour by seven strokes as well before taking the Hero World Challenge in The Bahamas. He has the game to be able to win worldwide in many different environments, including at the Waste Management Phoenix Open earlier this year. Can we expect Hideki, who is No. 6 in the Official World Golf Rankings, to pick up a Major Championship in 2017?
“I can’t say that I played well today, but I did win Tiger’s tournament,” Matsuyama said. “And what a great honor that is.”
The headline of the tournament was definitely the return of tournament host, Tiger Woods, to competitive golf. It was great to watch him practice and finish 72-holes of golf, pain free. It was a mixed bag that we saw from Tiger (literally – TaylorMade woods, Nike irons, Scotty Cameron putter), but his game was very encouraging. He made the most birdies of anybody in the field (24) but finished his tournament in 15th place at 4-under par after rounds of 73-65-70-76. Hopefully, we’ll see more of the “65” Tiger than the “76” Tiger, but overall, it was a pretty impressive tournament from him after being away from competitive action for over 15 months.
Both Matsuyama and Tiger, as well as the rest of the field, are sure to be focusing their sights and their games on The Masters coming up in April. There will be a lot of story lines come April – some that we can think of are Rory McIlroy completing his career grand slam, Jordan Spieth getting redemption after his collapse last year, Hideki Matsuyama becoming the first Japanese winner of The Masters and of course, Tiger Woods returning to Augusta! Just 242 days left!
Source: PGA Tour
