Hideki Matsuyama Goes Unconscious At Riviera, Patrick Cantlay Hates Weekends, And The PGA Tour's Lack Of Juice

Stop me if you've heard this one already in 2024, but another longshot won on the PGA Tour in a week that featured a serious lack of juice. We're nearing March and already seven tournaments into the newest campaign, the noticeable lack of enthusiasm may not be a trend, it may just be what the PGA Tour is at this point.

Hideki Matsuyama managed to put together a historic Sunday to storm back and win the Genesis Invitational at Riviera while Patrick Cantlay's streak of not being able to put together anything at all on the weekends continued. Tiger Woods withdrawing from the event on Friday because of flu-like symptoms may have been the most memorable thing of the week, which paints a grim picture for the state of the Tour.

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As always, we'll dive into it all in the latest edition of Par Talk and get you caught up on everything you need to know from the week that was in golf.

Hideki Matsuyama Flips A Switch No One Else Could At Riviera

Hideki Matsuyama began his final round at the Genesis Invitational on Sunday six shots back of the lead, yet 18 holes later he won the tournament by three shots in dominant fashion. He birdied his first three holes of the afternoon, which proved to be a preview of what was a magical day for the former Masters champion.

Matsuyama managed to string together another threesome of birdies to open his back nine. This presented him with an opportunity to slam the door shut on the 15th and 16th holes with others in contention struggling to find momentum. He didn't just slam the door shut, he ripped it off its hinges and threw it through the doorframe.

On the Par 4 15th, the hardest Par 4 on the golf course, he hit his 189-yard approach shot to eight inches.

That wasn't good enough for the man from Japan, because on the Par 3 16th he stuck his tee shot to six inches. The best part about the near-ace? Matsuyama didn't like it while the ball was in the air.

Matsuyama's bogey-free 62 speaks for itself, showing that he was playing a different game than every other player in the field on Sunday. Nobody, outside of Adam Hadwin who shot 65, was able to flip the switch as emphatically as Matsuyama did during the final round.

That wasn't due to a lack of star power towards the top of the leaderboard with Patrick Cantlay, Will Zalatoris, Xander Schauffele, and Jason Day all lurking. It's less a detriment to their games and more of a compliment to Hideki's.

When Matsuyama has things clicking, he's still very much one of the top players in the world, especially on today's PGA Tour with so many top players now playing on LIV. He may have gone two years between wins on Tour, but it's hard to imagine another dry spell like that is on the table for the 31-year-old moving forward.

Patrick Cantlay Continues To Fade When It Matters

If PGA Tour events were just two days, and played on Thursdays and Fridays, Patrick Cantlay would have approximately 1 million wins. Unfortunately for him, that is not the case. He has to play golf on the weekends and it's clear he doesn't exactly enjoy doing so.

After firing 64-65 and taking a commanding lead into the weekend at Riviera it felt like the Genesis was Cantlay's to lose, even with his baggage of not exactly being a closer. After being lights out through the opening 36 holes, Cantlay was the exact opposite over the weekend, shooting a combined even par over the final two rounds of play, which is never going to get things done in any PGA Tour event.

Anyone paying the least bit of attention to begin the year was not surprised one bit at Cantlay's lack of a pulse on Saturday and Sunday.

Heading into this week with four starts in 2024 under his belt, Cantlay ranked first on Tour in first-round scoring and 99th in second-round scoring, which is certainly a recipe to get yourself into the mix heading into the weekend.

READ: Former Pro Calls Patrick Cantlay A Narcissist For Not Shouting 'Fore' During Genesis Invitational

Cantlay's round-three scoring average of 70.0 put him at 105 on Tour, and then things go South in a hurry in the final round as he ranked 148th, averaging a score of 72.67 on Sundays heading into Genesis week. After his final round 72 on Sunday at Riviera, his ranking of 148th poetically stayed the exact same. 

The PGA Tour Is In A Worse Spot Than Many Want To Admit

We're seven weeks into the 2024 PGA Tour season, and you could almost effortlessly make the argument that LIV Golf has had a better start to the year than the Tour. Given that LIV has only had two events in that time frame and three of the seven events on Tour have been elevated ‘signature' events, it's not exactly a good sign of what could be coming for the PGA Tour.

Forget the TV ratings side of things, too. The only people who truly care about ratings are the media and sponsors, and given that LIV's sole sponsor is the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) the ratings are quite literally just a number.

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The stretch of brutal weather and a six-week run of long-odds players finding the winner's circle to start the year hasn't helped the Tour's efforts, but that doesn't mean a free pass or ignoring the reality is warranted.

If you take the bad luck with weather and countless delays out of the equation, you're still left with leaderboards lacking firepower the golf world has grown so accustomed to seeing. 

It all goes back to LIV not only accumulating a seriously talented roster of players, but a roster of players with both elite talent and personality. Golf fans don't have to like the personalities of Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Cam Smith, Brooks Koepka, or even Jon Rahm, but golf fans have no choice but to admit that they brought drama and intrigue to the weekend far more often than not.

It's simply turned into a numbers game. The Tour still has plenty of star power, but if its stars don't shine, the casual fan isn't going to take interest. The fact that I'm writing that sentence after a signature event at Riviera Country Club - one of the most elite stops on the schedule - is not a good thing.

The headlines for the Genesis Invitational would be Tiger Woods withdrew with the flu, Jordan Spieth was disqualified on Friday for signing for an incorrect score, and Hideki Matsuyama won by three, in that order specifically.

Just about everything that could go wrong has gone wrong for the Tour to start a pivotal 2024 campaign.