Hideki Matsuyama finished off his 2025 campaign on a high note, winning the Hero World Challenge in a playoff against Alex Noren.
Hideki Matsuyama managed to begin and end his campaign in style, first setting a PGA Tour scoring record to win The Sentry and later defeating Alex Noren in a playoff to claim the Hero World Challenge. His win at Albany provides momentum heading into 2026, particularly with Scottie Scheffler among those chasing him down the stretch.
Yet those two victories mask the broader reality of his season. Matsuyama recorded just one top-10 finish in a PGA Tour event all year and failed to contend in the majors, where his best result was a tie for 16th. Across the last three seasons, he has registered only one top-10 in the majors.
The area of the game preventing Hideki Matsuyama from being a top-five player
Despite boasting a résumé that places him among the most accomplished players of the past decade, Matsuyama continues to be held back by his putting. Speaking on 5 Clubs, Gary Williams argued that the 33-year-old remains too inconsistent on the greens to fully realise his potential.
Williams noted Matsuyama’s remarkable achievements — 11 PGA Tour victories, eight wins on the Japan Tour, triumphs at the Memorial, the Genesis at Riviera, two World Golf Championships, a FedExCup playoff event and, of course, the 2021 Masters. He added that Matsuyama is a “mortal lock” for the World Golf Hall of Fame given his international résumé and major pedigree, with top-six finishes in all four majors.
But Williams highlighted a clear pattern: Matsuyama “lives uncomfortably outside the top 100” in putting statistics. His career figures — rankings of 111th, 119th and 176th in strokes gained putting — show why he often endures long stretches without top-10 finishes despite being “one of the elite ball-strikers in the world”.
Why putting may not actually be Hideki Matsuyama’s biggest concern
Alarmingly for Matsuyama, putting was not his only vulnerability in 2025. He also struggled off the tee, finishing the season ranked 139th in strokes gained off the tee on the PGA Tour.
While he remains an accurate ball-striker with his irons, Matsuyama is not particularly long by modern standards, averaging just over 300 yards last season. Coupled with a driving-accuracy ranking of 124th, the combination of modest power and inconsistent tee-to-fairway control created challenges throughout his year.
It is therefore unsurprising that his best performance came at Kapalua, renowned for its vast fairways and forgiving collection areas — conditions that mitigated his weaknesses and allowed his elite approach play to shine.
With The Sentry absent from the 2026 calendar, Matsuyama faces added urgency to correct his issues both on the greens and off the tee. Without meaningful improvement in those areas, it will be difficult for him to re-establish himself among the world’s top five, even if he remains capable of producing brilliance on any given week.