HIDEKI MATSUYAMA SHOT an eight-under par 65 to grab a one-stroke lead over Collin Morikawa at the PGA Tour’s season-opening The Sentry tournament at Kapalua, Hawaii.
With the usual wind factor almost absent, it was a day of low-scoring on the beautiful Plantation Course with only two players shooting over-par.
Matsuyama, the 2021 Masters champion, hit his stride with a run of three straight birdies from the fourth hole on, adding another on the par-3 eighth.
He added four more birdies on the back nine, including a 35-foot birdie putt on the 11th, and said he felt his injury problems were now out of his mind.
“I just have to believe that I’m in good shape and ready to go, so that’s where I’m at,” said the 32-year-old, who is now in contention for his 20th professional win and his 11th on the PGA Tour.
Matsuyama sits on 16-under after two rounds and doesn’t have to worry about a charge from world number one Scottie Scheffler, who is missing the event after hurting his hand in a Christmas Day cooking accident.
But Californian Morikawa, whose grandparents were born just 10 miles from the course in Lahaina, also shot 65 to make sure he heads into the weekend in contention.
Morikawa took full advantage of the birdie chances on the back nine with a streak of five straight birdies from the 13th hole.
A quartet of players were a further shot back of Morikawa — Canadian Corey Conners, American Maverick McNealy, who shot 64, overnight leader Tom Hoge, who slipped back after his 68, and Belgian Thomas Detry (65).
USA Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley also shot 64 and sits three shots off the lead after ending his round with an eagle on the 18th, where he sank a 29-foot putt.
Wyndham Clark, the 2023 US Open winner, was also on 13-under after his 64, which included seven birdies on the back nine.
You people should be ashamed of yourselves – fickle bunch. Any countrymen worth their salt can tell you that win or lose, your team needs your support, but you’re like a bunch of jackals – at their backs as long as they win, and if not, you tear them to shreds. They did Ireland proud this tournament, and were defeated honourably in what was one of the cleanest games I’ve seen. Had they been a lesser side, the score might have been 66 – 0. Well done boys, win or lose, you did us proud.
Keep that losing mentality up and we will never win. Your ‘boys’ are a bunch of millionaires that gave a pathetic performance. They wouldn’t stand for that losing mentality in NZ and that’s why they will win the tournament. If they were from Colombia then they’d be shot!
Hear, hear. They did us proud and were great ambassadors off the pitch while over there too. Much prefer to be supporting our lads than to have them behave like some of the English squad have done.
Well put. Ireland is a fairly small country, not easy to produce a heap of magnificent players. I think the pool matches are well to keep heads held high over. So they lost it to nerves…sh*t happens
I would point your fluff-filled pathetic Y chromosome lacking ugly trollface to NZs loss to France in 2007. Coach kept his job, public got over it. If you want to be so insulting, you lose the right to be treated with respect
Expected more from you there Kelly… Disappointing! You’ve pulled that one out before somewhere else… Unoriginality is so unbecoming. It’s women like you that make chauvinism so fun
Wales got stuck in from the start. I think Kidney didn’t explain to the lads that there wouldn’t be a return leg! Still proud of them all nonetheless. Good luck to Wales.
Really disappointed. We all dreamed for a while and some of us even got carried away. Wonderful to get carried away about an Irish team. Can all those negative pricks out there go back to dwelling on ur property portfolio and shut up. FairPlay lads, for a few weeks you had the country dreaming.
Wales did a good job but were we over hyped
good luck ireland!!
Congrats Wales. Ye gave our boys a lesson this morning. :(
Go on lads
Talk of semi final and final opponents before a ball had been kicked by the media, of course Wales were underestimated. End of day last eight in the world another disappointing world cup campaign
LOSERS. We are losers. Why are we so useless. Needs addressing
Did people think they would actually get anywhere in this world cup. They are a one hit wonder team good against Australia and now fade away to nothing. Just goes to show how asleep Australia were that day…. O’Gara please please retire you are crap
Paul, you really have equipment issues
@Paul: I don’t think that someone who can’t spell their name correctly can start pointing fingers Mc grath – capitol G dumbass….
You will have the same people saying weren’t they great for trying, but they are just a bunch of losers on a world stage. A half arsed effort and the country should hang it’s head in shame. Ireland needs to start producing winners of some kind and stop this clap on the back for losing mentality!
If Ireland starts producing “winners” like you, Kelly, we are well and truly doomed. Hitler had the same “winning” attitude, I’m sure. Nonetheless, not having *your* support is probably the best thing to happen to the team today – with fair-weather fans like you, who needs enemies.
Disappointed with the loss of course but the lads have done us proud and I’m sure will get a hero’s welcome home.
To have low expectations
Gatland did his homework and showed us to be a two trick pony. Can’t fault the Welsh – they did it right and wanted it more. We looked shook from the get go. Too many unforced errors. Most of the lads had a ghastly day as their game plan collapsed. Still, there’s a lot of positives to take away from this tournament and the win against Australia will go down in history. I hope they get a warm welcome home. They have plenty to be proud of.
Back to the drawing board. The style of Irish rugby will only get you so far on the world stage and that needs to be addressed. But that’s for another day.
Proud of our boys.
denied…………………………. so sad……..
they at least got us this far… shame
Been up since 7 o’clock yesterday morning and only now do I remember that I can’t watch it on RTE because I’m in England for college….
10-3 down and half time here.. experience will out in the second half i can feel it….. cmon ireland
That and kicking some of the penalties
did we under estimate them ?????
I think so :(
Time to look forward to our soccer’s team glorious failure now on Tuesday night
yes it pisses me off to that we have lost folks……!!!!!
The welsh were as tight as a ducks arse and ireland didn’t create and momentum and were to slow to adapt but i was not on the field and having been in the boxing ring myself
ITS NOT THE LADS ON THE SIDE LINE WHO HAVE LOST THE FIGHT…
ITS THE LADS ON THE PITCH…
YES THEY LOST AND WE ALL KNOW IT BUT FAIR PLAY TO THEM FOR GETTING US THIS FAR…..
LETS REGROUP AND LEARN FROM OUR MISTAKES.
MAYBE WE NEED TO LOOK AT YOUNGER PLAYERS…
i am still gutted though….
Cmon ireland….
we all need support even in shit times not just good…….
denied……………….. so so sad…
Same old story
their defense is a brick wall. they need to go out to the flank…
Can we please take this opportunity which it is, to sacrifice the next 3 six nations, every year the fans jump all over the Irish team for their performance in six nations championships. The fact is nothing holds a candle to the world cup. Let’s bleed new players ROG, D’Arcy, O’Connell, O’Driscoll and others won’t be around for 2015 so let’s drop them now and build for the future. It sounds harsh but this professional international rugby not underage tip!
My heart is in my mouth. Going to need a stiff drink after this!
Why the hell replace O’Gara with Sexton? How many will he miss in this match?
Least he might actually have a go.
Why do we always need to be underdogs to achieve anything its gettin kinda old !
How many times can they knock it on?
Not for faint hearted
LOOSERS!
The irony is delicious.
I bet they can at least spell
@Sean Armstrong you have a serious case of sour grapes turning nasty on the female sex is a juvenile response and its dick-heads like you that turn straight women into lesbians!!!!!!!!!!
Tip of the day: scroll back to the original comment and then hit reply. Then your ironic comment will pop up just below mine and I can appreciate it in all it’s glory! Almost would have missed it and then you wouldn’t have been very happy would you pet?
I don’t think Sean have much interest in the female sex going by his profile pic. Makes his comments understandable.
@ willy pearse
How does a comment like this get any thumbs up?!
Im dissapointed we lost today, especially for BOD and ROG :(
And they did us proud in this world cup, I dont care what dick pearse says, they played well for most of the time, and I really enjoyed watching all of their performances, It was a big improvement on the last world cup, Improvement is how you win, Ireland WILL win the world cup some day! The only thing that annoyed from the start of this match was the fact we didnt kick our penalties, That was our downfall in RWC2003 – we lost to Australia 17-16 because we didnt go for the 3 points when we had the chance! Same thing again today, but at the end of the day, wales were the better team, and I really hope they go on to win the World Cup!
Hard luck Ireland! :(
LOOSERS
All those red thumbs guarantees we will always be LOSERS
I see you discovered spellcheck so?
Bet the sheep in the valleys are in for a torrid time today
@ngvireland if they didn’t get far this country shouldn’t play rugby
@Sean mc Grath listen asshole my fucking name and il write it what ever what I want…. Dick head
Jesus are you able to use the shift key – Sean McGrath (capitol M this time numnuts), u need to go back to school, the dog in the picture would have got it right at this stage…
@sean mc grath Suck my ball sac you twat