Hideki Matsuyama makes historical past for Japan with Masters triumph

Hideki Matsuyama delivered golf-mad Japan the grandest and greenest prize of all.
Ten years after Matsuyama made a sterling debut as the very best beginner at Augusta National, he claimed the final word trophy Sunday with a victory within the Masters to develop into the primary Japanese winner of the inexperienced jacket.
Matsuyama closed with a 1-over 73 and a one-shot victory that was solely shut on the finish, and by no means severely unsure after Xander Schauffele’s late cost ended with a triple bogey on the par-3 sixteenth.
Moments earlier than Dustin Johnson helped him into the inexperienced jacket, Matsuyama wanted no interpreter in Butler Cabin when he mentioned in English, “I’m really happy.”
So masterful was this efficiency that Matsuyama stretched his result in six pictures on the again 9 till a couple of moments of drama. With a four-shot lead, he went for the inexperienced in two on the par-5 fifteenth and it bounded onerous off the again slope and into the pond on the sixteenth gap.
Matsuyama did effectively to stroll away with bogey, and with Schauffele making a fourth straight birdie, the lead was down to 2 pictures with three to play.
The subsequent swing all however ended it. Schauffele’s tee shot on the par-3 sixteenth bounced of the hill and dribbled into the pond. His third shot from the drop space went into the gallery. He wound up with a triple-bogey 6.
Never thoughts that Matsuyama bogeyed three of his final 4 holes. All that mattered was that uphill stroll to the 18th inexperienced, needing solely to blast out of the bunker and take two putts for the victory.
That’s what he did, a ultimate bogey for a one-shot victory over 24-year-old Masters rookie Will Zalatoris, who closed with a 70 and stayed on the observe vary simply in case of a playoff.
Matsuyama completed at 10-under 278 for his fifteenth victory worldwide, and his sixth on the PGA Tour.
He turns into the second man from an Asian nation to win a serious. Y.E. Yang of South Korea gained the 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine over Tiger Woods.
Prime minister leads celebrations of Matsuyama’s Masters win
Led by Japan’s prime minister, the nation celebrated golfer Hideki Matsuyama’s victory within the Masters _ the primary Japanese participant to win at Augusta National and pull on the well-known inexperienced jacket.
“It was really wonderful,” Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga mentioned along with his nation struggling to drag off the postponed Tokyo Olympics in simply over three months. “As the coronavirus drags on, his achievement moved our hearts and gave us courage.”
Masashi “Jumbo” Ozaki, who tied for eighth within the Masters in 1973, mentioned he hoped extra Japanese male golfers can be impressed by Matsuyama.
“This is a great achievement for the Japanese golf world,” he mentioned in feedback on Japanese media. “And it came about because of Mr. Matsuyama’s own ability to take up challenges, his courage and all the effort that went into that.”
Isao Aoki completed second to Jack Nicklaus within the 1980 U.S. Open, the earlier greatest end by a Japanese male golfer in a serious.
Two Japanese ladies have gained golf majors: Chako Higuchi on the 1977 LPGA Championship and Hinako Shibuno on the 2019 Women’s British Open.
Aoki recalled how Matsuyama gained the low beginner title within the 2011 Masters simply weeks after the earthquake, tsunami and the meltdown of three nuclear reactors devastated the northeastern Fukushima space of Japan.
About 18,000 folks died within the catastrophe and the world remains to be struggling to recuperate.
“This time, your Masters win came at a time when many people were feeling down, with many activities restricted in Japan amid a coronavirus pandemic, and you gave hope to so many people,” Aoki mentioned in feedback carried on-line in Japanese in Golf Digest.
Aoki added: “This win, which was the first for a Japanese as well as an Asian, was a moment we were all waiting for, not just myself but all the Japanese golf fans and those involved in the golf world.”
The U.S. Embassy in Japan despatched its congratulations to Matsuyama as “the first Japanese golfer to win The Masters.”
Outside busy Shimbashi prepare station in central Tokyo, retired employee Takashi Atsumi known as it a “tremendous result.”
“For him, I think it was a goal that was hard to reach despite his tremendous efforts over the past 10 years,” Atsumi mentioned. “I think it’s absolutely fantastic that he was able to achieve the goal today. I think he set a great milestone for the next generation of Japanese people.”