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A new PGA Tour season is here, which means it’s time for the return of Par Talk. 

For all the new readers out there, which there are aplenty here at OutKick, welcome. Par Talk is a weekly column that drops every Monday where I unpack the week that was in the world of professional golf. It’s not the typical recap of whatever Sunday’s final round entailed, but a more opinionated breakdown of some of the biggest stories of the week that you may have missed. From big-time ball knowers to the most casual of golf fans, there will be plenty of stuff for everyone.

So, stick around and enjoy, and always feel free to reach out to me at mark.harris@outkick.com with thoughts, concerns, questions, and of course disagreements. It’s all about community, whether it be one of 12,000 or 12,000,000, let’s build one. My Twitter is @itismarkharris if you’d rather take things public and yell at me there.

We Should Maybe Stop Overlooking Hideki Matsuyama

There isn’t a golfer on the planet that the entire golf community overlooks more than Hideki Matsuyama. That isn’t to say he’s a disrespected player by any means, because you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who wouldn’t agree he’s a certified killer, but it’s like we play this unneeded waiting game with him year after year.

Matsuyama is one of the best ball strikers of his generation, is a magician with a wedge in his hand, and has some gargantuan wins including the 2021 Masters to his name, yet he’s hardly ever part of the conversation. Hell, this is a guy who won the Genesis Invitational by three in February and the FedEx St. Jude Championship by two less than five months ago.

Maybe it’s the combination of injury flareups over the years coupled with a putter that doesn’t show up a few times a year, but he’s simply not talked about enough until it’s too late and he’s hoisting a trophy.

A simple, real-life example of this is my own one-and-done competition. Out of 561 members in the pool, a whopping 12 picked Matsuyama for The Sentry, and I wasn’t one of them. Shoutout Max Greyserman, T-24. 

All Matsuyama managed to do in Hawaii was win the event by three shots and set a PGA Tour scoring record along the way at 35-under. That’s now 11 PGA Tour wins for the Japan native, who is still somehow just 32 years old, and of those 11 wins, five were by at least three strokes.

Matsuyama constantly being overlooked is an indictment on all of us and a reflection of the times we’re in.

Greatness isn’t solely measured on skill and even resume these days, but more so on star power. Given Matsuyama lives an incredibly private life and only recently began doing some interviews in English, he’s easy to bypass, especially for the casual American golf fan.

The reality is that Hideki may just now be entering his prime with a major and over 20 worldwide wins already in his back pocket.

There Is A Much-Needed And Easy Fix For The Sentry

I’d like to go on record by saying that The Sentry, in its current setup, stinks out loud.

I am not one of those golf nerds who wants to see the best players in the world struggle to reach double digits under par week in and week out, but there shouldn’t be a world where 35-under par is the winning score on the best professional golf tour on planet Earth. 

Honestly, the fact that 25 players in a 59-man field reached 20-under par may be an even better example of this tournament needing a change, and that change seems incredibly simple.

It’s hard to imagine The Sentry leaving The Plantation Course at Kapalua anytime soon, so let’s just change it from a Par 73 to a Par 71 and be done with it.

The Par 5 fifth hole needs to be converted into a Par 4. It played under 530 yards for the week and had a scoring average of 4.12. From there, you either scrap one of the shorter Par 4s and insert a Par 3 somewhere, which would be welcomed given there are only three on the current course setup, or you turn the Par 5 15th, the second-easiest hole of the week, into a Par 4 as well.

Speaking of the fifth hole, Matsuyama has made birdie or eagle on it the last TWENTY times he’s played it. That shouldn’t be a reality, even for one of the best players in the world.

Players would still get to 25-ish under par at a Par 71, birdie lovers would get their fix, but we’d see players grind over a few more shots at the same time, which would make everyone more intrigued.

Xander Schauffele May Have Put American Ryder Cupers In An Awkward Spot

Whether it’s fair or foul, Xander Schauffele has become one of the leading figures in the controversial debate about whether Ryder Cup players should be paid after the debacle that unfolded in Italy in 2023.

The PGA of America has had enough of the conversation and announced in December that, beginning this year at Bethpage Black, American Ryder Cup players would be paid. Of the $500,000 total, players are required to donate $300,000 of it to charity while the remaining $200,000 is viewed as a “stipend” which a player can use as they see fit.

The fact that members of the U.S. team have the option to pocket some, or all, of that $200k has made things interesting, to say the least.

Based on Schauffele’s comments earlier this week about it, well, it appears players won’t actually have an option to keep any of the stipend.

“I’m looking at it as an opportunity to give away more money,” Schauffele said at The Sentry. “It’s going to go to charity. It’s never going to be perceived that way, just with how the media talks about stuff and how things shook down in Italy.”

“We’re used to playing in these team events and not getting paid and giving our portion away happily. It’s a really nice thing we can do. We make plenty of money throughout the year, so we’re happy to give money when we can.”

Schauffele will be just one member of the 12-man team that tries to take down the Europeans this fall, but it’s clear he’s taking the lead on the money conversation, and shutting down the idea that any player will pocket the stipend cash.

It’s almost as if the PGA of America could have simply avoided the situation and not announced a stipend, or simply announced an increase in charitable funds and we wouldn’t be talking about this, but what do I know?