WITB Winner’s Bag: Hideki Matsuyama, 2025 Sentry

World #6, Hideki Matsuyama, won the ’25 Sentry championship in record fashion. It was a huge win for Japan’s Ichiban, his 11th on tour, and for Srixon, his primary club sponsor. Coming off a big year last year and picking up a win in this season’s first tourney yesterday sets him up for a stellar ’25 campaign. Look out Augusta, Hideki has conquered you before.

Now, let’s dive into the gear he used to slice and dice the Plantation Course in Maui.

Hideki played with his trusty ZX5 Mk II LS 9.5 degree driver. This driver was released in ’23, and we fully expect Srixon to release a new driver model this year, possibly as early as late January/early February, to coincide with the PGA Show taking place later this month in Orlando. Traditionally, Hideki is a good, not great driver of the ball. Something to keep an eye on this season as he likely transitions into new gear under his Srixon contract.
His deal with Srixon doesn’t mandate he plays their fairway woods. He played in The Sentry with a TaylorMade Qi10 15-degree 3-wood, which is a popular club on tour for those under contract and for equipment-free agents.
Surprisingly, he put into his bag a Cobra 4/5 wood (17.5 degrees) – King RadSpeed Tour model. We rarely see this club in winners’ bags.
He plays with stiff S400 TT Dynamic Gold shafts in his irons. Wow. This was a surprise. Most pros (95%) play with x-stiff shafts in their irons, but Hideki must love the feel of a softer, heavier shaft. They sure worked this week!
His contract calls for him to play with Cleveland wedges – Cleveland is a sister club manufacturer to Srixon. We’ve tried them out. Nice. But not Vokey nice. No other wedge is Vokey nice.
He played last week with Srixon’s newest ball – the ’25 model of the X-Star XV. We’ll have to try them out and report back.