“I’m shut”
As for his week in LA, McIlroy was untouchable from the tee however he is aware of his iron play was solely common in what is a superb take a look at of kind for the Masters.
“I feel I am shut. I am not fairly the place I need to be,” McIlroy mentioned. “It is one in every of these programs the place you bought precision is so essential and placing your ball in the correct areas and when you’re simply barely off your, , your weaknesses type of get magnified this week.”
Energy transfer
As for Seamus Energy, he took an enormous step ahead in his restoration from a hip harm when he completed only a shot behind McIlroy in joint thirty first on four-under.
Right down to 107th on the planet heading after taking 4 months off on the finish of 2023 following a niggling hip harm, the West Waterford man closed with a stage par 71 to maneuver as much as 104th this morning.
It’s Energy’s greatest end result since he was pressured to hunt a cortisone injection in his hip, which began to hassle him once more in the course of the tour’s two-week journey to Hawaii in January.
“It has been fascinating on the west coast for me as a result of we did not we did not actually have an low season,” Energy mentioned earlier than the ultimate spherical. “So it is sort of an low season on the fly right here, piecing it collectively a little bit bit, however getting there.”
The Tooraneena man (36) defined that his hip has been extra of an issue than he had hoped when he returned to the tour within the New 12 months
“I did not play a lot till actually till Maui after which had a little bit of a setback with it and needed to get a cortisone shot after Sony,” he defined.
“It has been nice since. So now it is actually getting there. It is probably not bothering me in any respect anymore, which it did for the primary couple of weeks in Hawaii.”
Hideki magic
Hideki Matsuyama produced a surprising again 9 of 30 to shut with a nine-under 62 and win the Genesis Invitational by three strokes from Will Zalatoris (69) and Luke Record (68) on 17-under.
The Japanese star’s ninth PGA Tour win sees him overtake KJ Choi as probably the most profitable Asian participant on the PGA Tour and catapults the previous Masters champion from fifty fifth to twentieth on the planet.
He trailed Patrick Cantlay by six strokes coming into the ultimate spherical, the most important deficit confronted via 54 holes by a winner on TOUR since Jon Rahm on the 2023 Sentry (7).
He birdied the primary three holes and turned in 32, then birdied the tenth, eleventh and twelfth earlier than putting the killer blow by hitting back-to-back iron photographs to eight inches and 6 inches on the fifteenth and sixteenth.
His six-iron to the fifteenth was sensational, however his face betrayed him on the sixteenth, and he admitted he’d pushed his tee shot 15 toes.
“On 15, tee shot, second shot, good shot. So I had an amazing momentum proper there,” he mentioned via an interpreter. “16 I hit it perhaps like 5 yards to the correct of my goal, however it turned a great shot. All is nice.”
He’d additionally birdied the seventeenth to go nine-under for the day and depart the boys within the ultimate group an excessive amount of to do to catch him as he made a three-footer for a closing par-three.
In a single day chief Cantlay began with 9 pars and was overtaken by Record and Zalatoris, finally carding a one-over 72 to tie for fourth with Adam Hadwin (65) and Xander Schaufffele (70) on 13-under.
