Hideki Matsuyama Comes From Behind To Top Rickie Fowler In Phoenix | Waterfront Properties Golf Blog

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Hideki Matsuyama Comes From Behind To Top Rickie Fowler In Phoenix

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Coming off the 16th green Sunday, Rickie Fowler seemed to have the Waste Management Phoenix Open all but locked up. He had a two shot lead over Hideki Matuyama with two holes to play and seemed that have gotten every lucky bounce and break all week that would imply a win was imminent. The luck, however, ran out on the 17th tee.

In a decision that many will probably continue to question for months to come, Fowler decided to pull out a driver on the drivable par 4 17th. It went along with Rickie’s entire persona on, and off the golf course: go big or go home. Unfortunately, Fowler got a bad break when his drive rolled all the way through the green on the 332 yard hole and into the water off the back. He went on to bogey the hole, while Matsuyama birdied, and all of a sudden that lead was gone and after both birdied the last, they were headed to a playoff.

“I’m hitting a chip-cut driver,” Fowler said. “Usually, don’t expect it to hit on the downslope and then go 360.”

In the playoff, Fowler decided to go the conservative route, possibly learning from his mistake in regulation. This time he found the water short and left of the green.

”Hit it solid,” Fowler said. ”Just hit it a little high on the face and it just got up and left a little quicker than I was expecting and wanted.”

Once again, Matsuyama took advantage of the Fowler mistake, making par and winning the Waste Management Phoenix Open. After the playoff, Fowler was visibly upset when he sat down with the media.

”The hard part is having all my friends and family and grandpa and my dad who haven’t seen me win,” Fowler said. ”But I will be able to kind of hang with them tonight. I’ll be all right.”

Matsuyama was surprised that he even had a chance to win the event with the way Rickie had been playing before the 71st hole. He kept his head down and was able to come all the way back and force the playoff and ultimately get the win.

”Surprised and sad that Rickie finished that way, but all I can do is my best,” Matsuyama said through a translator. ”I was lucky to come out on top.”

Once again the Waste Management Phoenix Open was the biggest party on turf. Routinely referred to as a party where a golf tournament broke out, the event shattered all the attendance records that were set at the 2015 event when the Super Bowl was also in town. 618,365 attended the event this weekend, breaking the 2015 total attendance record of 564,368. That number included a whopping 201,003 attending on Saturday. With attendance numbers like that, it can be intimidating for anyone to play a golf tournament, let alone have to come back against one of the more popular golfers on tour.

”It was a blast playing in front of all these people,” Matsuyama said. ”I’d say probably 99 percent were cheering hard for Rickie, but that gave me the motivation to go out and do it and win.”

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About Dan Hauser

As an avid golfer and sports enthusiast, Dan has had a passion for sports starting at a very young age. Dan’s other passion has always been writing. Since the time he could write, he has always enjoyed sharing information with people and telling stories through writing. In middle school he combined his two loves by joining the school newspaper in the sports department.

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