History for Hideki Matsuyama.
With a birdie on Kapalua's 678-yard closing par-5, the 32-year-old from Japan won the PGA Tour’s season-opening Sentry at 35 under, setting the new PGA Tour scoring record in relation to par by one stroke. He also tied the record for most birdies in a single Tour event with 35.
MORE: Final results, payouts from the Sentry
And he did it in dramatic fashion.
The world’s sixth-ranked player striped his tee shot 414 yards, but his second shot fell 92 feet from the hole. However, he chipped to 8 feet and then buried his birdie putt for his 11th Tour win and first since last year's FedEx St. Jude Championship.
“That last putt, it felt like if I make it, then it’s going to be the record,” Matsuyama said after his final-round 8-under 65, “so I’m so happy that it went in.”
Buckets from the fairway! 🎯
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 5, 2025
@HidekiOfficial_ holes out for eagle and leads by three @TheSentry.
📺 NBC/Peacock pic.twitter.com/CxrX4NVjUc
Matsuyama bested Cam Smith’s previous record of 34 under that the Aussie set at the 2022 Sentry. Three years ago, Smith broke Ernie Els’s mark of 31 under from the 2003 Mercedes Championship at Kapalua.
Now, all five of the lowest 72-hole scores in PGA Tour history have come at Kapalua—and all have been done in the last three years. Matsuyama’s runner-up, Collin Morikawa, now sits tied for fourth on the list after finishing at 32 under.
Morikawa got within one stroke of Matsuyama's lead on the par-4 13th, but Matsuyama never relinquished the lead.
“I knew Collin was going to play good today,” Matsuyama said, “so I was going to say, ‘hey, I’m going to shoot 10-under today,’ and that’s the attitude I had today.”
The 2021 Masters champion set off fireworks early, holing out for eagle from 107 yards on the par-4 3rd. Adding another eight birdies to his scorecard, Matsuyama became the Tour's first winner of 2025—and put his name atop the record books.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Hideki Matsuyama Goes Ridiculously Low to Win the Sentry in Record Fashion .
