Finland’s Korhonen won’t travel for U.S. Open

So what will it take for the top players to walk away from this year feeling they were successful? They tell Michael Collins in their own words.

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When Hideki Matsuyama became the No. 1-ranked amateur in the world in 2012, he was the first player from Asia to reach the milestone. A slice of Matsuyama’s influence on the sport since – both in his native Japan and around the globe – is evidenced in that same World Amateur Golf Ranking. This week, Taiga Semikawa is the No. 1 amateur in the men’s game – the third different WAGR No. 1 from Japan in the last three years. As the most prolific PGA TOUR winner all-time from Japan (eight wins) and the country’s first men’s major champion, Matsuyama’s impact on growing the sport’s popularity might be fully seen in the burgeoning wave of talent to follow. Matsuyama will look to successfully defend a PGA TOUR title for the second time in his career this week at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP. A better approach The hallmark statistical trait of Matsuyama’s game has always been his stellar approach play. In 2021-22, Matsuyama ranked sixth on the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Approach per round, the eighth time in his career he has finished a season ranked inside the top-10 on TOUR in that statistic. That’s tied for the most seasons ranked in the top-10 in SG: Approach since tracking began in 2004, alongside Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk. There are more than 470 players who have accumulated 125 measured rounds or more in the PGA TOUR ShotLink era, which began in 2004. Of that group, only six have averaged more Strokes Gained: Approach per round than Matsuyama (+0.74 per round). Just four players have had 500 or more rounds measured by ShotLink and averaged 0.70 Strokes Gained: Approach per round or more: Matsuyama, Furyk, Paul Casey and Justin Thomas. When Matsuyama is at his best, he’s usually brought that facet of his game up to an even higher level. Advanced data is available in six of Matsuyama’s career wins on the PGA TOUR. In five of those six victories, Matsuyama ranked fourth or better in the field that week in Strokes Gained: Approach. In all, 44.6% of Matsuyama’s Strokes Gained: Total in his wins have come from his approach play. That’s a significantly higher average than his peers – over the last 10 seasons, players who win on the PGA TOUR gain, on average, 35% of their strokes via approach shots. Though Matsuyama has been consistently good throughout his professional career with his approach play, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t found room for improvement. One area of recent improvement is his proximity to the hole from 125 to 150 yards. Matsuyama ranked 71st on TOUR in that particular proximity range just three years ago. He ranked No. 2 on TOUR in that statistic in 2020-21, and he led the TOUR in it last season. In Matsuyama’s 2021 Masters win, he ranked fourth in the field in Strokes Gained: Approach (+1.79 per round) and tied for seventh in greens in regulation. Green jacket in tow, Matsuyama will be a fixture at Augusta National for decades to come. With iron play being incredibly significant there – six of the last eight Masters winners ranked in the top-five that week in Strokes Gained: Approach – Matsuyama should find himself hitting significant shots on Masters Sunday many times in the future. Success tee-to-green While Matsuyama’s transcendent talent comes with his irons, he’s been a good driver of the ball since turning pro, too. Since 2013-14, Matsuyama has averaged 0.33 Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee per round on the PGA TOUR, 43rd-best of 331 players with 100 or more ShotLink-measured rounds in that span – that comes out to the top-13 percent. Matsuyama’s overall ball striking numbers since turning pro are, in turn, absolutely stellar. He’s ranked ninth on the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Ball Striking per round since 2013-14 (+1.06), his first full season. He’s fifth on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green per round (+1.32) in that same span, just ahead of Justin Thomas. Matsuyama has ranked in the top-20 on the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green in each of the previous nine seasons, the longest active streak of any player. This consistently reliable ball striking has made Matsuyama one of the more bankable week-to-week performers on the PGA TOUR over the last decade. Matsuyama has never missed more than five cuts in a single PGA TOUR season. He hasn’t had back-to-back missed cuts in more than six years – the last time that happened was in the summer of 2016, at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday and U.S. Open. Since 2014-15, Matsuyama’s 49 top-10 finishes are tied for seventh-most on the PGA TOUR. Winning the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP in 2021 Matsuyama’s five-stroke margin of victory at last year’s ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP marked the third time he has won a PGA TOUR event by five shots or more. Matsuyama started the final round with a one-shot lead, but carded two eagles and three birdies that Sunday to move away from the pack. His ball striking was, again, excellent – he led the field in greens in regulation for the tournament, hitting 81.9%, while the field averaged just over 61%. He also scrambled at a 77% clip, second-best of anyone in the field. In two previous starts at Accordia Golf Narashino CC, Matsuyama has been bested by one player (Tiger Woods in 2019) and has never shot a score higher than 68. Six players have successfully defended a title on the PGA TOUR since the beginning of last season, including Max Homa at the 2022-23 season-opening Fortinet Championship. Matsuyama and his brilliant approach play have a great opportunity to extend that list this week.

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Step by step. In a game where answers can be hard to come by, Webb Simpson adopted that mantra after reading about Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and even had those three words stamped on his wedges. RELATED: Leaderboard | What’s in Simpson’s bag? Control what you can control, keep moving forward, and have faith that good things will come. “It’s just a reminder for me to take care of the little things,â€� Simpson said after making his second birdie on the 18th hole in less than a half hour to win the Waste Management Phoenix Open in a playoff over Tony Finau. “And the big things seem to take care of themselves.â€� The victory was Simpson’s sixth, and first since THE PLAYERS Championship in 2018. It also came after four runner-up finishes since last summer. He moved to second in the FedExCup. Finau was bidding to win for the first time since the 2016 Puerto Rico Open at Coco Beach. “He got the upper hand this time,â€� Finau said, “but I love that guy, and that’s one hell of a finish. If you’re going to birdie 18 a couple of times, you’re probably going to win.â€� Justin Thomas (65), Bubba Watson (66) and Nate Lashley (68) tied for third, three back. Simpson looked out of it when he hooked his drive into the water at the par-5 15th hole, and while Finau failed to convert on an eight-foot birdie try, the lead was still two with three to play. Finau, the 54-hole leader who recently moved from Utah to Scottsdale, seemed to be in control. “To me it came down to the putt on 15,â€� said Boyd Summerhays, Finau’s coach, “because anything can happen coming in.â€� Paul Tesori, Simpson’s caddie, reminded Simpson of exactly that after their misadventure on 15. “Step by step,â€� Tesori said as they sized up the last three holes. “Tony might birdie the last three and it won’t matter, but if we do our job, we might have a chance.â€� Simpson nearly hit the flagstick at the rowdy, par-3 16th hole, but missed his 18-foot birdie try. He drove the green at the short, par-4 17th and converted a tough two-putt to cut the lead to one. At the par-4 18th, Simpson converted an uphill, right-to-left putt from 17 1/2 feet to force Finau to make, which he couldn’t do, his 8 1/2-foot downhill birdie try sliding off to the right. Simpson birdied 18 from just outside 10 feet, on a similar line, in the playoff. It was over. In a span of three holes in regulation and one in overtime, the script had flipped. “I didn’t think it was over,â€� Simpson said of his thoughts walking off the 15th green, “but I thought I am really going to have to do something special to get back in it.â€�   Step by step. It was how the winner kept his head in the game after four runner-up finishes – The RSM Classic, Wyndham Championship, World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, RBC Canadian Open – but no wins since last summer. He told himself he was learning something every time, and that he hadn’t so much lost those tournaments as others won them. “I wasn’t in contention at Memphis when I finished second,â€� he said. “I had a great Sunday. Rory shoots 61 at RBC, J.T. Poston shoots 62 (at Wyndham). Tyler Duncan birdies 17 and 18 at RSM, which is incredible on those two holes. It could have been easy for me to get down, but as you look at those tournaments, guys played great and that’s the way the game goes sometimes.â€� His father, Sam, who died just over two years ago, used to tell Simpson: You hang in there. You keep at it no matter what life and your job might throw at you. “If you’re not ready for things to turn around,â€� Simpson said Sunday, “they probably won’t.â€� His solid play this week was no surprise; he had lost a playoff to Hideki Matsuyama in 2017, and had three other top-10 finishes at TPC Scottsdale. The course appeals especially to big hitters, which Simpson will never be – he’s outside the top 150 on TOUR in driving distance – but he makes up for it with pinpoint accuracy with his irons, first and foremost. Also, although few have probably noticed, he has gotten incrementally longer with the help of trainer Cornel Driessen. “He’s gained about eight yards in the air over the last two years,â€� said Tesori. “Transformed his body. He works out like a beast at home. I used to call him a skinny fat kid, and now he’s ripped. He’s stronger, more flexible.â€� The result: Simpson, who had done everything but win with six top-20 finishes here, was able to comfortably hit 3-wood off the 18th tee and know he’d have only a sand wedge remaining. “It doesn’t look like it, because he’ll never be able to do what they can do,â€� Tesori said, “but in his own way he has worked as hard as he could.â€� Step by step. At 34 years old and with six TOUR wins to his name, Simpson is really getting somewhere.

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