Hideki Matsuyama Swing Analysis: Success Through Great Ball Striking

Hideki Matsuyama doesn’t get nearly enough credit for being the ball striking machine that he is. He has amassed an amazing record in 8 years on Tour with over 36 million dollars of earnings, 7 PGA Tour victories, and, of course, last year’s Masters, all while never ranking above 78th in strokes gained putting, and indeed ranking worse than 150th in 4 of his 8 years. How is that possible, you might wonder? Just look at his ball striking stats: his rankings in strokes gained tee to green read like this- 2014-4th, 2015-7th, 2016-6th, 2017-3rd, 2018-15th, 2019-3rd, 2020-2nd, 2021-15th. In strokes gained approaching the green he finished in the top 10 for 6 straight years. While acknowledged in the US as a talented player, Matsuyama does not speak fluent English and thus his star shines brightest in his home country of Japan, where he is revered. On the technique side, Hideki’s swing is notable for its pronounced pause in transition, something that teaching pros suggest to students all the time but happens to be a bit quirky for a PGA Tour player. In the video we see how he has more recently made his transition “catchier,” where the hips interrupt the backswing earlier and cause a more fluid looking transition, but that doesn’t seem to matter much as it would be hard to improve on any of his ball striking stats. The things that stand out to me are the incredible stretch and load he gets in the backswing while maintaining or even increasing his knee flex, his impeccable club positions throughout the swing, and the pelvic movement he uses to keep his hips ultra-deep through the hitting area.