World Challenge Golf: Hideki Matsuyama opens up seven-stroke lead

Albany (The Bahamas): World number six Hideki Matsuyama spread-eagled the field on Day Three of the Hero World Challenge here, opening up a massive seven-stroke gap with a nerveless display of controlled golf. Tournament host and five-time winner Tiger Woods had looked like he would make a run at the leader with an early birdie blitz but in a repeat of his first day performance, fizzled out on the back nine.

Player of the year and US Open winner Dustin Johnson of the United States and Sweden’s Henrik Stenson, the Open champion, were the only ones who stayed somewhere near Matsuyama, totalling 204s against the 24-year-old’s three-day card of 19 under par 197. Matsuyama, who travelled to the Bahamas on the back of a hot streak, three tournament wins and a runner-up place in his last four starts, played steady — at times brilliant — golf. His third day card of seven under par 65 had an eagle and seven birdies, against two bogies. “I knew somebody was going to go low, but I thought it was going to be probably three, four guys that would post this kind of a score,” Woods said. “But Hideki is just playing unbelievable golf.”

On a day the gusting winds caught almost everyone out — defending champion Bubba Watson hitting four bogeys and a triple on his way to three over 75 — Matsuyama looked like he was playing on a different course from the rest of the field. Matsuyama’s score matched the 54-hole score by Watson last year here at Albany. Watson then held a two-shot lead going into Sunday’s round. This time, Matsuyama, in racing parlance, enters the last day leading by a distance. Yet he was reluctant to make too much of it. And he says there is no getting away from the fact that Woods is in the chasing pack, even though he is a huge 11 shots off the lead. “Only Tiger could take a year and a half off and put up the numbers that he’s putting up this week. I don’t care how many strokes I’m leading over him, I still worry about him, fear him and I’m just going to have to try my best tomorrow.”

Woods opened Saturday with three straight birdies, and then popped in a 40-yard bunker shot on the par-3 fifth to get within two shots of the lead as Matsuyama, then on 12 under, was getting started, but the momentum fizzled out. At the 12th, having drained an 18-foot birdie to be 11 under, Woods’ driver went astray. He started missing fairways and dropping shots, dumping a second shot into the water after a wayward tee shot on the 18th hole for a double bogey. Tiger had a 70 and was 10th in the 17-strong field.

Johnson and Stenson who have both had breakthrough years on the Tour could not match the pace and the errors crept in as the gap widened. Mastuyama’s eagle on the par four seventh hole doubled the lead in one go, and playing partner Johnson helped by ending with a double bogey on the 18th. Brandt Snedeker (69) and Matt Kuchar (71) were at 11-under 205s while Stenson was left to relive memories of his seven-shot loss to the Japanese in Shanghai at the HSBC Champions earlier in the season.