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AUGUSTA, GEORGIA | At the sweet completion of a slow-drip dance with all of Augusta National’s devils and angels late Sunday afternoon, Hideki Matsuyama wrapped a green jacket around his thick shoulders that have carried the weight of a nation for so long.
That’s a hard way to win the Masters.
In the slanting sunshine of the golden hour, Matsuyama finally could exhale on the 18th green, having made it to the end, one stroke ahead of 24-year-old wizard Will Zalatoris, becoming the first Japanese player to win the Masters.
Winning the Masters is both life- and career-changing for anyone who does it. For the 29-year-old Matsuyama, who has played golf in the perpetual and sometimes smothering glare of his home country’s attention, it was a glorious achievement even if it came with an inglorious finish of three nervous bogeys on the last four holes.
It’s easy to say that the magnitude of an achievement doesn’t immediately sink in but in the case of Matsuyama and his place in Japanese sports history, what was years in the making may resonate for generations.
By Sunday evening, he already was getting questions about whether he might be asked to light the Olympic torch when the Games begin in Tokyo this summer. As with most questions, Matsuyama was polite (through a translator) and said he would be interested if it fits his schedule.
Having held off Zalatoris, Xander Schauffele and a collection of other players on a course that was quick to cut, Matsuyama was faced with another dilemma. Is he now the greatest Japanese golfer ever?
“I can’t say I’m the greatest,” he said. “However, I’m the first (man) to win a major, and if that’s the bar, then I’ve set it.”
On the women’s side of the game, Hisako “Chako” Higuchi won the 1977 LPGA Championship, and Hinako Shibuno won the 2019 Women’s British Open. But on the men’s side, what Tommy Nakajima, Jumbo Ozaki, Shigeki Maruyama and Ryo Ishikawa could not do, Matsuyama accomplished.
“He’s a bit like a Tiger Woods to the rest of the world, Hideki in Japan,” Adam Scott said.
As Matsuyama turned down the final nine holes Sunday afternoon, club officials were already finding a jacket for him. He had a five-stroke lead and with no one making a push at him, Matsuyama needed only to avoid big mistakes.
A bogey at the par-3 12th was offset by a birdie at the par-5 13th. But Matsuyama, who woke up early and nervous Sunday morning, felt Schauffele chasing him with three consecutive birdies at that. The lead was down to three when Matsuyama decided to go for the green at the par-5 15th rather than play a conservative layup. The Augusta story is painted with tales of decisions that backfire. Matsuyama almost added his own chapter.
He stung a 227-yard 4-iron that flew through the wind, landed over the green and bounded into the water on No 16. He pieced together a bogey but his lead was two.
Schauffele played his way out of the tournament with a triple bogey at the 16th but Matsuyama was laboring and when he finally tapped in the final putt, he had no more room to spare.
This has been building for more than a decade.
Eleven years ago, Augusta National created the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, which instantly became one of the most important events in the amateur world. Ten years ago, Matsuyama won it. Nine years ago, he won it again.
Winning the green jacket Sunday closed the circle in a sense, coming eight days after another Japanese golfer – 17-year-old Tsubasa Kajitani – won the Augusta National Women’s Amateur championship.
At a time when Asian-Americans have been targeted by hate crimes in this country, the victories by Matsuyama and Kajitani felt almost heaven sent.
Matsuyama has been a very good player for a long time but he lacked that one big thing that defines special players. The closest thing Matsuyama had was the pause at the top of his backswing.
The green jacket he pulled on Sunday afternoon changed all that, now and forever.
Matsuyama doesn’t speak English, at least not in public, relying instead on his translator, Bob Turner. It’s a familiar story about media rooms but it gets to who Matsuyama is. When one of the many Japanese reporters who follow Matsuyama wherever he plays was asked how much English the golfer speaks, the reporter said very little – then added that Matsuyama speaks very little Japanese, too.
He’s quiet and it came as a surprise in 2017 when he revealed he was married and had just become a father. No one, it seemed, had bothered to ask him if he had a wife because he says little and what he does say is usually confined to golf.
When play was suspended Saturday for more than an hour due to rain, Matsuyama sat alone in his courtesy car watching something on his phone.
“I think he’s really living in his own world a bit, and partly the language barrier he has over here,” said Scott, who took Matsuyama under his wing in the 2013 Presidents Cup, introducing the then-21 year old to his teammates. “I think he probably knows a little more English than he lets on, but it’s easy for him to kind of put the (blinders) on and really not get distracted by much noise.”
Matsuyama has been an exceptional ballstriker for years, building a methodical and muscular swing stacked atop his powerful lower body. He’s never been a great putter but he made the ones he needed at Augusta – a 10-footer for par at the dangerous fifth was huge Sunday – and his short game was magnificent.
It’s so easy to lose shots around Augusta National’s greens where the slopes and nuances can seem to play favorites at times. Matsuyama played like Yo-Yo Ma on the cello.
Speaking of musicians, someone asked Matsuyama if it’s true that he’s treated like a rock star in Japan.
He had no answer.
“I don’t know,” Matsuyama said.
He’s about to find out.
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