Before the final round of the Hero World Challenge, tournament host Tiger Woods approached Hideki Matsuyama and noted the Japanese star was wearing his traditional Sunday yellow golf shirt, the same color he wore when he won the 2024 Genesis Invitational with a final-round 62. Woods, who serves as tournament host at the Genesis too, told him to go shoot another 62 and he just might win again.

Matsuyama did his best, holing out from the fairway for an eagle and carding six birdies en route to an 8-under 64 at Albany Club in Nassau, Bahamas.

“I didn’t shoot 10 under but very happy to win this week,” Matsuyama said.

To end the year as well as he began it, the 33-year-old Matsuyama needed one more brilliant shot. He stuffed a 9-iron approach at the first playoff hole from 166 yards to 3 feet and made the birdie putt to beat Alex Noren.

"It was a perfect distance for me," Matsuyama, the 2021 Masters champion, said. "I was going right at it."

Noren, a 43-year-old Swede, played alongside Matsuyama and matched him with a final-round 64, the lowest round of the day, to vault past overnight leader Sepp Straka.

Matsuyama opened the season with a record-low score at Kapalua’s Plantation Course to win The Sentry in Maui but then failed to record a single top-10 finish in his next 22 starts. Matsuyama, who was playing the Hero for the first time since 2018, shared the 36-hole after a 66 on Friday but trailed by three entering the final round.

Straka led by three early and toured the front nine in 32, but Matsuyama went one lower, including a 29-foot birdie putt at the par-3 eighth. He played the front nine bogey-free for the week. He caught Straka in dramatic fashion by spinning a wedge from 116 yards back into the hole at No. 10 for eagle to reach 21 under. Before he hit the shot, he watched Noren hit his own beauty that set up a birdie.

"I got the great imagination from Alex and able to hit a great shot," Matsuyama said.

He pulled in front with a 30-foot birdie at No. 13 that if it didn’t hit the center of the cup it would’ve been at least 5 feet past the hole. Shooting 62 was in his sights but the birdies ran dry and he finished with five pars. Straka faded after making a mess at the par-5 11th, where he went from bunker to bunker and had to work hard for bogey. Straka closed in 68 and finished third a shot out of the playoff.

“It looked like Sepp was in total control playing nine and then all of sudden the momentum flipped the other way,” Woods said on NBC’s broadcast.

Scottie Scheffler's bid for a third straight win at the Hero World Challenge came up short as he signed for 68 and finished T-4.

Noren, who said that Tiger was his idol growing up, charged in Tiger-style with eight birdies in his final 13 holes, including three of the last four, to force a playoff at 22-under 266 with a 19-foot birdie at the last. But Matsuyama delivered a dagger on the first extra hole to improve to five wins in six playoffs on the PGA Tour. And bookend victories during 2025 meant he was able to pose for more pictures with Tiger on the 18th green with the winner's trophy — a tiger and globe cast in bronze and accented with colorful patinas — as a two-time Hero champion (2016) and now a three-time winner of tournaments hosted by Woods.

"That's why I play well in Tiger's event," Matsuyama said.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Hideki Matsuyama wins Hero World Challenge for second time in playoff

Reporting by Adam Schupak, Golfweek / Golfweek

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