St Jude Invitational Tip: Hideki Matsuyama

It’s been a couple of years since Hideki Matsuyama made it to the winner’s enclosure but his ball striking is right up there with the peak periods of his career. Ranked third in strokes gained tee-to-green he is amongst the elite and it’s just a case of waiting for the putter to get hot and the signs are positive.

The 27-year-old has gained strokes on the field putting on his last six measured PGA tournaments and his missed cut at Royal Portrush was the first time he’d failed to make the weekend of a stroke-play tournament since the Open Championship last year.

The reason why Matsuyama isn’t shorter in the betting is two-fold: the lack of recent wins and course form. The former we have dealt with (it’s the putter) and the latter isn’t a big issue as far as i’m concerned. TPC Southwind isn’t normally a regular haunt for the best on tour, of the current WGC field only 17 tee’d it up here last year. Those with good course form are Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickleson and Billy Horschel and none are near their best at the moment.

Matsuyama is not disadvantaged by his lack of course knowledge and actually a tough par-70 that relies on accurate approach play, should be in his favour. He is a cracking bet at 33/1 with BetVictor paying 5 places at 1/4 odds.