And after one round at this week’s BMW Championship at Castle Pines Golf Club in Colorado, Matsuyama was in second place after firing a five-under 67 on Thursday.
But before teeing off in Round 2, Matsuyama abruptly withdrew from the tournament, citing a lower back injury.
Hideki Matsuyama is a WD prior to the second round of the BMW Championship with a lower back injury.
Luckily for Matsuyama, the withdrawal will not affect his current FedEx Cup points standing. The best he could have done this week would have been to catch the second-ranked player, Xander Schauffele. Matsuyama is currently projected to remain in third, even after receiving zero points for this week’s tournament.
Scottie Scheffler is the top-ranked player in the playoffs field, and Schauffele would need a win this week to overtake him. Only the top 30 players from the FedEx Cup points list will move on to next week’s PGA Tour season finale, the Tour Championship at East Lake.
While missing out on the $3.6 million winner’s share of this week’s $20 million purse when you’re in contention is sure to sting a bit for Matsuyama, the desire to be fully healthy for next week’s Tour Championship is understandable. At East Lake, the winner will pocket a whopping $25 million.
As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of female varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everyone on the masthead. She can out-hustle them in the office, too, where she’s primarily responsible for producing both print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s inaugural Style Issue, which debuted in February 2018. Her original interview series, “A Round With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in both in the magazine and in video form on GOLF.com.
