Hideki Matsuyama Wins The Sentry at a Record 35 Under

Hideki Matsuyama needed one more putt to own a piece of PGA TOUR history. From 8 feet on the 72nd green at Kapalua, he poured it in.

Matsuyama closed with an 8-under 65 on Sunday to win The Sentry at 35-under 257, the lowest score relative to par in a 72-hole PGA TOUR event. He broke Cameron Smith's 34-under mark, set on this same Plantation Course in 2022, by a single shot, and beat Collin Morikawa by three. Morikawa shot 67 to finish at 32 under. Sungjae Im closed with 65 to take third at 29 under, and Jhonattan Vegas, also with 65, was fourth at 25 under.

The Shot That Set the Tone

The final pairing started where Saturday left off, with Matsuyama one clear. It did not stay that way for long. On the par-4 third, Matsuyama holed a sand wedge from 107 yards for eagle, a shot the PGA TOUR named its Shot of the Day. The ball took a couple of hops and disappeared, and just like that his lead was three.

Morikawa then gave a little back. He three-putted the par-5 fifth for par, then three-putted from 60 feet on the sixth for bogey. Suddenly the deficit was four. For a player who had not shot worse than 66 all week, the greens picked a terrible time to turn on him.

"I just knew I had to be on top of everything, and sort of let a few slip on that front nine," Morikawa said, per Field Level Media.

Morikawa Makes It Interesting

Matsuyama did leak one shot, a bogey on the par-4 seventh that was only his second of the tournament. He still made the turn four ahead, and Morikawa needed something to happen fast.

It nearly did. Morikawa birdied the 14th and 15th to get within two with three holes to play. On a course where the leader had been making birdies in bunches, two shots felt like a real fight again.

Matsuyama ended that conversation on the 16th, sticking a wedge to 4 feet for birdie. The cushion was back to three, and the only question left was the record.

A Record, Then Another

Matsuyama made it dramatic on the par-5 18th anyway. He launched a 414-yard drive on the 678-yard closer, per Sports Illustrated, but his second shot finished 92 feet away. He chipped to 8 feet and holed the putt to get to 35 under. Afterward he said he knew that putt was for the record, and that he was thrilled to see it fall.

"He just never let up," Morikawa said.

That final birdie was Matsuyama's 35th birdie or better of the week, which the PGA TOUR says is a TOUR record, topping the marks of Smith in 2022 and Im in 2024. It also says something about where this event has gone. According to SI, the five lowest 72-hole scores to par in TOUR history have all come at Kapalua, all in the last three years, and Morikawa's 32 under ties for fourth on that list. He finished second anyway.

Matsuyama's Hawaiian Double

The trophy is Matsuyama's 11th career PGA TOUR title and his third win in less than a year, following two victories in 2024. It is also his first since the FedEx St. Jude Championship last August, per SI.

The win made him just the seventh player to win both of the TOUR's Hawaii events, having already won the 2022 Sony Open. Only Justin Thomas in 2017 and Ernie Els in 2003 have won both in the same season.

The paycheck was big too. The Sentry is a $20 million Signature Event, and Matsuyama took home $3.6 million and 700 FedExCup points, pushing his career earnings past $60 million. Morikawa banked $2.16 million and 400 points. Im earned $1.36 million for third.

The Rest of Sunday

Im's 65 capped a week in which a third-round 62 had hauled the South Korean into contention. Ludvig Åberg closed 65 and 64 on the weekend to share fifth at 24 under with Corey Conners and Thomas Detry, who faded to a 71 after holding third through 54 holes.

"Obviously, you need to shoot a lot of low scores to keep up here," Åberg said.

The day's most unforgettable swing came from Taylor Pendrith, who holed a 6-iron from 200 yards on the par-5 fifth for an albatross, the first on the Plantation Course since the tournament moved to Kapalua in 1999.

"As soon as I hit it I knew it was going to be really good," Pendrith said. "Didn't expect it to go in. Didn't see it go in."

Pendrith gave some back with a double bogey on the 17th and tied for 13th at 22 under. That number says plenty about the week. All 58 players who finished were at least 3 under par.

The Takeaway

Kapalua was soft and generous all week, and the field took full advantage. But records do not fall on their own. Matsuyama went 65, 65, 62 and 65, played the weekend with a red-hot Morikawa breathing on him in the final pairing and never flinched. He arrived in Maui with a bag full of putters and leaves with the lowest number the TOUR has ever seen.

It is only the first week of January, and the 2021 Masters champion has already set the bar for 2025.

Revisit the week with our Round 1, Round 2 and Round 3 recaps. The final results are on the official PGA TOUR leaderboard (opens in a new tab), and the TOUR's final-round recap (opens in a new tab) has more.

Sources: PGA TOUR (final-round recap, leaderboard, points and payouts), Field Level Media, Sports Illustrated. More golf coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: PGA TOUR.