Hideki Matsuyama shot a bogey-free 9-under 62 Sunday to overcome a six-stroke deficit to win the $20 million Genesis Invitational at The Riviera Country Club by three strokes over Luke List and Will Zalatoris.
Back-to-back birdies on the 15th and 16th holes on 8- and 6-inch putts gave Matsuyama a one-stroke lead over Zalatoris. He added two strokes to his lead when he birdied the 17th hole and Zalatoris, playing two groups behind, bogeyed the 15th.
Matsuyama finished his round by two-putting the 18th hole for a par, falling one stroke short of tying the course record set by Ted Tryba in 1999, completing the tournament at 17-under 267.
Matsuyama did set two records Sunday — the lowest closing round by a winner of the 60 editions of the Genesis Invitational at The Riviera Country Club, breaking the previous record of 63 set by Doug Tewell in 1986, and the most PGA Tour victories by an Asian player, nine, breaking the tie with South Korean K.J. Choi, an eight-time winner from 2002-2011.
“To win in this tournament was one of my goals ever since I became pro,” Matsuyama, who turned professional in 2013, said through an interpreter. “After Tiger being the host, that goal became a lot more bigger. A little disappointed that I wasn’t able to take a picture with Tiger today.”
Woods withdrew from the tournament Friday because of what was later confirmed by Woods to be influenza.
Matsuyama was assured of the victory when Zalatoris parred his final two holes. List moved into a share of second by birdieing the 17th hole.
Matsuyama entered Sunday’s play among three golfers tied for seventh, six strokes behind leader Patrick Cantlay.
When asked if he thought he would win when he showed up at the course, Matsuyama responded, “To answer that question, no. I was not feeling comfortable with my ball-striking, so I was kind of thinking, `Hey, I’m going to have a couple miss shots today,’ but maybe that kind of worked out.”
Matsuyama birdied each of his first three holes Sunday to move into sixth, three strokes behind Cantlay, who hadn’t started his round.
Matsuyama parred the next six holes, then birdied the 10, 11th and 12th holes to tie Cantlay for second, one stroke behind List.
List bogeyed the par-4 11th hole to drop into a five-way tie for the lead with Cantlay, Matsuyama, Xander Schauffele and Zalatoris.
Zalatoris birdied the 13th hole to take the lead.
Matsuyama received $4 million for his first victory since the 2022 Sony Open in Hawaii.
“Reaching nine wins was one of my big goals,” said Matsuyama, who will turn 32 next Sunday. “After my eighth win, I’ve been struggling with my (neck) injury. There were a lot of times where I felt 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.”
Matsuyama suffered the injury at the 2022 Arnold Palmer Invitational. He had just two top 10 finishes in his 11 starts during the remainder 2021-22 season, two in 26 starts in the 2022-23 season and none in his five starts in the 2024 season before the Genesis Invitational.
Matsuyama also won eight times on the Japan Golf Tour between 2011 and 2016 and the 2016 Hero World Challenge, an unofficial event hosted by Woods
Matsuyama is the first player to enter the final round of a PGA Tour event trailing by six strokes or more and going on to win by at least three strokes since Bubba Watson at the 2018 Travelers Championship, when he trailed by 6 and won by 3, like Matsuyama.
Matsuyama is the first Japanese player to win the tournament which has been held annually since 1926, except for 1943, when it was canceled because of World War II.
Cantlay was among three players tying for fourth, four strokes off the lead, after shooting a 1-over 72. Cantlay parred each of the first nine holes, bogeyed the 10th, birdied 11th, bogeyed the 13th and 15th holes and birdied the 18th.
The 31-year-old former UCLA star who played at the Virginia Country Club in Long Beach as a youth led by one stroke after Thursday’s first round, five after Friday’s second round and two after Saturday’s third round.
This was the fifth time Cantlay has held a 54-hole lead or co-lead in an individual stroke-play event on the PGA Tour, not including the Tour Championship, where the player with the most FedEx Cup points leading into the tournament starts at 10 under par, the second most at 8-under and down to the 26th through 30th players who start at even par.
Cantlay has two victories with a 54-hole lead or co-lead — the 2021 and 2022 BMW Championships.
Zalatoris disclosed after his round that he “lost a family member on Thursday … so she was with me all week.”
“Pretty special to make the hole-in-one on Friday after I found out on Thursday,” Zalatoris said.
Zalatoris called the death “very unexpected.” He did not disclose his relationship to her or her name.
Zalatoris said he would join his family in the Pacific Northwest. He withdrew from the Mexico Open at Vidanta, set to begin Thursday at Vallarta, Mexico, the PGA Tour announced following the conclusion of the Genesis Invitational.
Zalatoris was playing in his fourth official PGA Tour event since undergoing back surgery last April. He missed the cut in last month’s Sony Open in Hawaii, tied for 34th in The American Express the following week and tied for 13th in the Farmers Insurance Open the week after that.
“Every week, I’ve been getting better, so I knew I just got to keep doing what I’m doing,” said Zalatoris, who did not play the past two weeks. “I’ve got a lot of silver in my house so getting another second place doesn’t really sit that well, but obviously coming back from what I had to go through physically … we’re in the right direction.”
The second-place finish was Zalatoris’ fifth in his 69 starts on the PGA Tour, including the 2021 Masters, when he also finished behind Matsuyama. He has one victory, the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship.
Zalatoris was among four players playing on a sponsor’s exemption in the limited field event which began with 70 players, along with Woods, Gary Woodland and Adam Scott.
Woodland tied for 39th at 1-under 283, making a cut for the first tine in his four starts since undergoing lengthy surgery to remove a brain tumor on Sept. 18. He earned $82,000.
Scott received his exemption after writing tournament director Mike Antolini. Scott won the tournament in 2005 and 2020, although the 2005 victory is considered unofficial because the tournament was shortened to 36 holes because of rain.
Scott tied for 19th at 6-under 278, earning $251,400.
Chase Johnson, who received the Charlie Sifford Memorial Exemption, finished 51th, last among players making the cut, at 5-over 289, earning $51,000. It was the third time in his five PGA Tour starts Johnson, who is Black, made a cut.
Since 2009, an exemption has been given to a golfer representing a minority background to play in the tournament. In 2017, the exemption was re-named to honor the memory of Charlie Sifford, the first Black player to compete on the PGA Tour.