Morikawa ‘saws' way to win at WGC-Workday Championship

HONOLULU – Hideki Matsuyama was wondering how Russell Henley feels sleeping on a lead after the Masters champion surged towards the top in the third round at the Sony Open in Hawaii. But he didn’t expect as honest an answer to come from the American himself. RELATED: Leaderboard | Russell Henley takes two-shot lead into Sunday at Sony Open | The clubs Keita Nakajima is using in Hawaii “It’s tough. I’ve slept on a few leads the last couple years. It’s hard. I struggle to sleep. I’m already not the best sleeper,” Henley admitted after a grinding 3-under 67 left him 18-under at Waialae Country Club, good enough to be two ahead of Matsuyama. “Gosh, my first two wins were my first two years on TOUR and this is my 10th season, so got to remember back a few years for those. But I definitely believe I can do it. But it’s sure hard to do. “I’ve had some tough finishes, tough to swallow. It’s a tough game.” The far from confident appraisal was music to the ears of Matsuyama who started the round six back and finished it just two adrift thanks to a 7-under 63. He will now chase an eighth TOUR win and second this season after his ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP win in the fall. Victory would almost certainly also bring the FedExCup lead. “Putting was my strong point today. Even my missed putts found the hole,” Matsuyama dead panned. “I was lucky today.” He made 121-feet, 4 inches worth on Saturday to rank second in the field in Strokes Gained: Putting, riding a huge wave of support from the Hawaiian faithful. It might not resemble the throngs of fans at his home ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP but it was clear the Japanese star was a favorite amongst the people. He’s hoping they’ll help him to increase Henley’s insomnia on Sunday. “It really helps out,” Matsuyama said of the support. “Whenever there is a big crowd like this it just gives you some extra motivation, and just kind of rode with all their cheers and hopefully tomorrow will be another good day.” The only concern for Matsuyama might have been soreness or an injury as he was seen wincing a few times throughout the round. But he was quick to put any fears to bed. “Nothing major,” he said. “I felt a pull here and there, but nothing serious.” Henley’s concerns might be more founded in fact. He has indeed missed some chances since claiming his third PGA TOUR win at the Houston Open in 2017. It followed his Sony Open triumph in 2013 and Honda Classic win in 2014 but since then the scars have started to form. He’s 1 for 6 when holding the 36-hole lead on TOUR although the lone conversion was his Sony Open win. As for the 54-hole lead – he’s 1 from 5 with that 2013 Waialae win again the only triumph. Three of the failures have come in the last 15 months where he lost the lead on Sunday at THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK, the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines last June and the Wyndham Championship last August. He led by three at Wyndham and faded to T7 and he shared the lead at Torrey but had a three-shot buffer on eventual winner Jon Rahm. Henley had to settle for T13. “Guys are so good out here. You just have to play at such a high level for so long to be in contention. So hopefully I can keep doing that and play well tomorrow, give myself a chance on the back nine,” Henley said. “I don’t really have a specific game plan for this. Doesn’t happen that much. Usually, we’re all just grinding to make the cut and sneak in a top 25. I’m just really trying to stay patient, stay focused on one shot at a time.” Perhaps the fact the pair at the top are trying to deflect pressure from their game could open the door for some other challengers. Veteran and 2019 Sony Open champion Matt Kuchar is one of four players four off the pace, joined by China’s Haotong Li, Ireland’s Seamus Power and Canada’s Adam Svensson. “Russell is playing great; you got Hideki Matsuyama right there. You can count on him playing quality golf as well. I know it’s going to take a low number for me tomorrow,” Kuchar said. “I would love to be able to tell you I’m just going go out and do it. If it were that easy, I would try to do it every day. This course, you’ve got to take what it gives you. If you find the fairway you can be aggressive; if not, you’re trying to make some pars. “I’m going to try to hit the first fairway, hit if close if I hit the first fairway, and go from there.”

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MELBOURNE, Australia – “I love me some me.â€� Now you know what Justin Thomas kept yelling at Tiger Woods after rolling in a 17-foot birdie putt to win the 18th hole and their Foursomes match Friday against Hideki Matsuyama and Byeong Hun An at Royal Melbourne. RELATED: Scoring | Day 2 match recaps | Day 3 morning match previews| Quiz: Which team should you support? A half-hour earlier, Patrick Cantlay also produced some 18th hole heroics, his birdie from just inside 14 feet giving he and partner Xander Schauffele the win over Adam Hadwin and Byeong Hun An. Until those two putts dropped, the U.S. Team was headed for its first Foursomes session defeat in 14 years at the Presidents Cup. Even more relative, those putts jolted the Americans into life after a relatively listless afternoon in which they appeared headed for a massive deficit. At one point, the Internationals led in all five matches. Had Cantlay and Thomas not made their putts – and had Sungjae Im made his birdie putt from 13 feet on the 18th hole in the final match – the U.S. would be trailing 8-2. Instead, the Americans won two matches and tied the last one, making the deficit a more manageable 6.5-3.5 entering Saturday’s two sessions, followed by Sunday’s Singles. “I know one thing — if we don’t make those putts, this is a pretty deep deficit,â€� Thomas said. And if Thomas didn’t watch a YouTube video — featuring former NFL wide receiver Terrell Owens — on the long bus ride to the course Friday, who knows what he would’ve yelled at Woods after making his putt. Fellow TOUR pro and former Alabama teammate Bud Cauley sent the 11-second clip of Owens. Thomas had seen it before, but this time he also showed it to his U.S. teammates. “When you have an hour-long bus ride, you go into a deep hole on the Internet,â€� Thomas explained. “They had not seen it. It’s a really funny video. I said, ‘If I make a big putt today, I’m yelling it.’ “Today that was a pretty big putt, so I thought it was the appropriate time to yell it.â€� Indeed, when Thomas’ putt fell in, he dropped his putter and started yelling, “I love me some me.â€� Woods did the same thing before the two shared a huge hug. “Very familiar with it, yes,â€� Woods said when asked about the T.O. video. “We were looking at it and we had our moment on the last hole, and we both said it at the same time.â€� Thirty minutes earlier, Cantlay rolled in his winning putt to rally past Niemann and Hadwin, who were 1 up through 14. While his celebration wasn’t nearly as exuberant as Thomas, Cantlay’s fist pump was still pretty demonstrative by his standards. “It was nice to see my boy P. here with some emotion,â€� Schauffele said. “I think it just shows how much it means to us.â€� Said Cantlay: “There’s no place I’d rather be than on the 18th green with a putt to win. There’s nothing like the focus that it brings out and the attention to the moment that it brings out, and that’s exactly why I play the game and I think that’s why we all play. Making those putts on 18 were so big for the momentum shift.â€� Despite the Americans’ two wins on 18, the Internationals still had a chance to win the session. Im and partner Cameron Smith were 2 up with three holes to play against Gary Woodland and Rickie Fowler. But Fowler’s terrific approach at the 16th set up Woodland for an 8-foot birdie putt. Woodland then reciprocated with an approach at the 17th inside 5 feet for a Fowler birdie. Tied going into the 18th, Im had a birdie opportunity from 13 feet after Woodland rolled his 44-footer well past the pin. But Im missed and Fowler made the 5-footer to save par and secure the half-point. “Whether it’s for a half-point, or if it’s to win, that’s why we play,â€� Fowler said. “You know, that little adrenaline rush that you get when you do make those putts, they are confidence-boosters.â€� Although the U.S. still trails, Woods and his players are at least feeling better about their chances. And if the Americans rally this weekend to retain the Presidents Cup, they’ll look back at those two winning birdie putts on the 18th hole Friday as the catalyst. “I felt like all day out there, it was another beating and we were getting beat up,â€� Cantlay said. “I looked up on the board and we were down in almost all the matches all day. Being able to flip the whole deal; we’re going to go to bed tonight feeling great and we’re going to have the momentum going into tomorrow. We are still down but there are a lot of points up on the board for tomorrow, available points. “I really thought this afternoon was huge and I think it’s going to be a big paradigm shift going forward.â€�

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The PGA TOUR’s lone official team event returns to the schedule in 2021 after being cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic last season. Jon Rahm and Ryan Palmer are back to defend their title from 2019 against a big-time field of FedExCup contenders, TOUR winners, and major champions. FIELD NOTES: Henrik Stenson, 2013 FedExCup champion, teams up with fellow Olympic medalist Justin Rose. The pair are reunited after breaking up in 2019… Reigning PGA Champ Collin Morikawa is making his Zurich debut alongside Matthew Wolff… Danny Willett is joining forces with fellow Englishman Tyrrell Hatton; they played together in the third round of the RBC Heritage on Saturday… Fresh off his T3 finish at the Masters, Xander Schauffele is pairing up with another top-10 golfer in the world, Patrick Cantlay… Kevin Kisner and Scott Brown, both of Aiken, South Carolina, are looking to finally take it across the finish line in New Orleans. They lost in a playoff in 2017, had the 54-hole lead in 2018, and finished T5 in 2019… Other notable pairings include South Africans Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel, the long-hitting tandem of Cameron Champ and Tony Finau, European squads of Viktor Hovland and Kris Ventura plus Graeme McDowell and Matt Wallace, and Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith (who with Jonas Blixt won this event in 2017). FEDEXCUP: Winners receive 400 FedExCup points each. STORYLINES: FedExCup points are distributed as if the partners tied for first. The winning duos will split the 500 points usually reserved for an individual champion plus the 300 points to the golfer who finishes second for 400 points each… The unique team format sees golfers play best-ball on Thursday and Saturday and alternate-shot on Friday and Sunday… There are plenty of potential Presidents Cup (Leishman/Smith) and Ryder Cup (Willett/Hatton; Hovland/Ventura) teams in New Orleans… This is the fourth year the event will be played as a team format. It’s one of the longest-standing events on TOUR, having started in 1938. COURSE: TPC Louisiana, par 72, 7,425 yards. The Pete Dye design is just 15 minutes from downtown New Orleans and while water is featured prominently, it is also one of the TOUR’s most scoreable layouts. The course, which boasts Steve Elkington and Kelly Gibson as consultants, moves through 250 acres of wetlands with more than 100 bunkers. 72-HOLE RECORD: 261, Cameron Smith/Jonas Blixt (2017), Kevin Kisner/Scott Brown (2017). Individual record: 262, Chip Beck (1988 at Lakewood CC). ALTERNATE SHOT RECORD: 65, Jon Rahm/Ryan Palmer (2nd Round, 2019) BEST BALL RECORD: 60, Retief Goosen/Tyrone van Aswegen (2nd round, 2017), Kevin Kisner/Scott Brown (4th round, 2017), Chez Reavie/Lucas Glover (1st round, 2018), Marty Dou/Xinjun Zhang (1st round, 2018), Brian Gay/Rory Sabbatini (1st round, 2019) LAST TIME: Jon Rahm and Ryan Palmer won by three over Tommy Fleetwood and Sergio Garcia in ’19. Fleetwood and Garcia pressured Rahm and Palmer by making birdies on Nos. 17 and 18 but it was too little, too late. It was Palmer’s first TOUR title in almost a decade, since the 2010 Sony Open. KH Lee/Matt Every and Brian Gay/Rory Sabbatini finished T3, while Seamus Power/David Hearn, Roberto Castro/Cameron Tringale, Hank Lebioda/Curtis Luck, and Kevin Kisner/Scott Brown – who lost a playoff to Cameron Smith and Jonas Blixt in ’17 – finished T5 HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 3:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. (Golf Channel), Saturday-Sunday, 1 p.m.-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (CBS) PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday, 8 a.m.-6:30 p.m. (Featured Groups); Friday, 9:15 a.m.-6:30 p.m. (Featured Groups); Saturday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. (Featured Groups), 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (Featured Holes); Sunday, 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m. (Featured Groups), 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (Featured Holes) Radio: Thursday-Friday, 1 p.m.-6:30 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 1 p.m.-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio). TOURCast: Get shot-by-shot info in real time with shot tracks and video with TOURCast. TOUR Pulse: Get the PGA TOUR app to utilize TOUR Pulse, which provides users the ability to experience a mix of content, such as video highlights, written hole summaries and stat graphics on every player after every hole they complete.

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