PGA Tour stock up, stock down after Hideki Matsuyama outlasts Henley at Sony Open

Hideki Matsuyama stormed back on the final nine holes of the Sony Open then bested Russell Henley in a playoff. Now we assess with our PGA Tour stock watch.

Through 63 holes, it seemed as if Russell Henley was about to capture victory at the Sony Open for the second time in his PGA Tour career. He had a five-shot lead over Hideki Matsuyama and seemed locked into form after an eagle on No. 9.

Then everything changed. Hideki Matsuyama, paired with Henley in the final group, continued to play ultra-aggressive golf and turn up the heat on the leader with each passing shot. Henley then clearly got shaken up by the mounting pressure from his playing partner and failed to record a birdie, thus allowing the Japanese reigning Masters champion to tie him on the 18th hole and force a playoff.

Three strokes later — including an all-timer 3-wood to all but ensure the eagle to win — Matsuyama captured the victory, his eighth on the PGA Tour.

Now that we’re heading out of Hawaii and back to the continental United States, it’s time to once again visit our PGA Tour stock watch and see how things look after the Sony Open.

PGA Tour: Stock up after Sony Open

Hideki Matsuyama – Seriously, just look at the shot on No. 18 in the playoff that all but won the tournament for Matsuyama.

277 yards to inside of three feet for eagle. That’s just absurdly good. Matsuyama, even after winning The Masters last week, doesn’t get enough credit for still being under 30 and playing like an elite player in the entire world. He should, though, and now that he is tied with K.J. Choi for most Asian wins on the PGA Tour, we could be heading towards Matsuyama finally getting his flowers — you know, other than the lei he got at the Sony Open.

Seamus Power – It’s time we start to truly take notice of Seamus Power. The Irishman started to forecast his rise towards the end of the 2020-21 season, punctuated by winning the Barbasol, but with an opposite-field victory, some were quick to discredit what standing he was in. He just showed he’s for real again with a T3 finish.

Power has now climbed to No. 49 in the world, up 23 spots from where he finished the 2021 calendar year. This is a guy that has found his ball-striking and will be heard from again this year.

Russell Henley – Because of how the back-nine went down, there are going to be those who are quick to detract from Henley. Stop that.

Henley may have gotten run down by Matsuyama, but that could’ve happened to anyone, especially with the pairing and the situation Henley got put in. There’s still reason to be wholly optimistic in his game moving forward. He’s still flushing his irons and his putting remains quite good. He contended for a bit at last year’s U.S. Open and I don’t see him going away in 2022.

PGA Tour: Stock down after Sony Open

Webb Simpson – Maybe this is somewhat of an overreaction, but it’s just not been all that pretty for Webb Simpson lately. The Sony was a continuation of that as he finished a paltry T61 at a course that he’s historically been really good at.

While some of his finishes over the past six months or so look good, the fact of the matter is that Simpson hasn’t looked like an elite player in any of them. And when you then throw in that one of the most crucial “course fit” players on the PGA Tour doesn’t play well on a course that should fit him, that’s worrisome.

Sungjae Im – This really might be recency bias considering that Im went win, T9, T19, T8 in his four previous tournaments before playing the Sony Open. Having said that, the South Korean workhorse showed some troubling inconsistency in the middle of last season that, frankly, was uncharacteristic of him. When he’s at his peak form, he’s not missing the cut at a course like Waialae by two strokes. Maybe he turns it around, but it was something that concerned me and that I now have earmarked moving forward.

PGA Tour players not to be worried about after Sony Open

Cameron Smith – Yes, Smith missed the cut one week after winning at Kapalua. No, that’s not a reason to have any worries about the fan-favorite Aussie.

There were a ton of people on Smith after the form he showed at the Sentry Tournament of Champions thinking that he could pull the “Justin Thomas” domination of the Hawaiian swing. But the fact of the matter is that he followed a much more typical pattern by struggling a bit after a huge win. After a respite and travel back to the mainland, I suspect we’ll see Smith threatening the top of the leaderboard once again soon enough.

Corey Conners – You could almost put Conners (my pre-tournament pick to win) in the Stock Up portion of the proceedings because his form had been okay but not great coming in. If not for a substandard third-round 69, though, the Canadian could’ve been right in contention with Matsuyama and Henley.

Conners puts extremely well comparatively at Waialae given that is the weakness of his game. Even still, he flushed the ball throughout the week and, if he can stick to his bread and butter there, we’ll see him in contention quite a bit this year.

For more from The PGA Tour, make sure to follow FanSided and stay tuned to our golf hub for all the latest news and results.