When Hideki Matsuyama is firing on all cylinders, nobody can stop him, which was exactly the case on Thursday at Le Golf National, the site of the Olympic Men’s Golf Competition.
He made eight birdies to zero bogies, shooting an 8-under 63 to soar to the top of the leaderboard after round one. Matsuyama tore it up on Thursday, relying heavily on his ball-striking and putting, converting plenty of opportunities he gave himself on the greens.
“Today’s result was good. So I’ll take that as a positive,” Matsuyama said.
“My putts went in the cup well today, and my shots went into the fairway, too. So I had a lot of chances, so I’m happy.”
After two-putting for par on the par-4 1st hole, Matsuyama holed a 17-footer for birdie on the challenging par-3 2nd, the hardest hole on the course on Thursday. Another birdie followed at the par-5 3rd, as the man from Japan was off and running.
The 2021 Masters Champion then made four straight birdies around the turn. He holed a 23-footer for birdie on the 7th, stuck his approach shot close on the par-3 8th, got up-and-down from over the green for birdie on the par-5 9th, and drained a birdie try from 16 feet on the 10th.
In the blink of an eye, Matsuyama sat at 6-under par and in complete control of his game. He briefly held a share of the lead with Germany’s Matti Schmid at 6-under, but Schmid stumbled over his last four holes, recording a double-bogey and a closing bogey to shoot a 3-under 69.
Matsuyama, meanwhile, had no such troubles and instead kept the pedal to the metal. Another birdie at the par-4 13th followed, thanks to a stellar approach that stopped just five feet away. Then, he two-putted for birdie on the next hole, a par-5, bringing him to 8-under for the championship. Matsuyama closed with four straight pars, including a terrific up-and-down on the 17th hole to keep his bogey-free round and his lead intact.
He did everything well on Thursday, ranking among the top 12 in each of the four strokes gained categories: off the tee, approaching the green, around the green, and putting. So it’s no wonder he gained more overall strokes than any of the other 59 players in the field.
His terrific start in Paris draws comparisons to his incredible final round earlier this year at the Genesis Invitational, where he fired a bogey-free 9-under 62 to win at Riviera. Maybe another victory will come his way this week.
Fifty-four holes remain before a gold medalist is crowned, and plenty of golf still needs to be played. But Matsuyama has put himself in a prime position heading into round two, and if he keeps this level of play up, nobody will catch him.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
