SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. \u2014 Hideki Matsuyama was thrilled to play with fellow Japanese player Ryo Hisatsune in the final pairing at the Phoenix Open and hoped they could do it again.<\/p>\n
Hisatsune\u2019s bogey on 18 put an end to that.<\/p>\n
Matsuyama may have bigger things to worry about with top-ranked Scottie Scheffler lurking.<\/p>\n
Matsuyama shot a 3-under 68 despite some missed opportunities down the stretch to take a one-shot lead Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cKind of a first today for Japan to have two Japanese pros play in a final group,\u201d Matsuyama said through a translator. \u201cI was hoping we could do it tomorrow, but, again, I hope tomorrow just to play well and stay on top.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll need to after Scheffler worked his way up the leaderboard at TPC Scottsdale\u2019s Stadium Course for the second straight day.<\/p>\n
In danger of missing his first cut since 2022 with a shaky first round, Scheffler backed up a second-round 65 with a 67 on Saturday to pull within five shots.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s been in this position before, rallying from nine shots down to win the 2022 Phoenix Open for his first PGA Tour victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing to need a special round,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ll be starting on the front nine tomorrow, so if I can get out there and make a few birdies on the harder nine and get some momentum going into the back, you never know what can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Catching Matsuyama could be tough.<\/p>\n
The Japanese star failed to get up-and-down from near the green on the short par-4 17th and left a 15-foot birdie putt on the lip at 18, but still finished at 13-under 200.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The two-time Phoenix Open champion was tied with Hisatsune after 17 holes, but took the outright lead into the final round after his countryman failed to get up-and-down from the greenside bunker for a bogey on 18. Hisatsune shot 70 to finish at 12 under.<\/p>\n
Nicolai Hojgaard had five birdies his final six holes to shoot a bogey-free 65. Maverick McNealy had a stretch of four birdies in five holes on the back nine to shoot 65. Si Woo Kim had an eagle on the par-5 third hole to shoot 66 and join them at 12 under.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a lot of guys there at the top that will be battling, so I just need to play well,\u201d Matsuyama said.<\/p>\n
Hisatsune shot 63 in the second round to surge ahead of Matsuyama by a shot, setting up a third-round\u00a0\u201cdream\u201d final pairing\u00a0with the player who inspired so many young Japanese players.<\/p>\n
Neither could get much going on the front nine.<\/p>\n
Matsuyama had birdies on three of his first four holes, including a 27-footer over a swale on the par-3 fourth. He also bogeyed Nos. 2 and 5 when he couldn\u2019t get up-and-down, making the turn at 1 under 34.<\/p>\n
Hisatsune couldn\u2019t gain much traction, either, turning in even par with two birdies and two pars.<\/p>\n
Matsuyama birdied the par-4 10th hole and added another with a two putt at the par-5 13th to take the lead at 13, but closed with five straight pars.<\/p>\n
Hisatsune also birdied 10 and got up and down on the short par-4 17th for birdie to tie for the lead before he missed an 8-foot par putt on 18.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m happy to be minus-1, so ready for tomorrow,\u201d Hisatsune said through an interpreter.<\/p>\n
A grip change altered Scheffler’s outlook after a shaky 73 in the first round.<\/p>\n
Scheffler had his first birdie on the par-4 eighth and holed out a bunker shot at No. 10 for the first of consecutive birdies. He followed a three-putt bogey on the par-3 12th by getting up and down for birdie on the two back-nine par 5s, 13 and 15.<\/p>\n
Scheffler missed a birdie putt on No. 16, couldn’t get up-and-down from pin high on the par-4 17th and missed another birdie on 18.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I feel very comfortable where I am at and where my game is at,” he said.<\/p>\n
That could spell trouble for the rest of the field, even at five shots back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. \u2014 Hideki Matsuyama was thrilled to play with fellow Japanese player Ryo Hisatsune in the final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-461426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}