Hideki Matsuyama converted a 54-hole lead in his first green jacket and major championship, with an excellent ball attack and an order from Augusta National in the final two rounds. Matsuyama’s victory in these 85th Masters is not only his first green jacket, but also the first major championship won by a Japanese men’s golfer, and only the second ever won by a men’s golfer from an Asian country (YE Yang of South Korea, 2009 PGA Championship).
Although he has been with majors throughout the past few years, Matsuyama struggled to finish the job earlier this weekend as he carried the weight and hope of a nation on his shoulders. From 2015-’17, he reached the fifth final in four majors, including a fifth-place finish at Augusta National in 2015. This sparked Matsuyama as one of the best golfers in the world. He spent much of 2017 in the top five of the Official World Golf rankings, and even took second place twice after finishing in the top five in the U.S. Open and PGA Championship that year.
It was a bit of a mess for Matsuyama to return to this point, as Sunday’s victory is the first since the WGC Bridgestone invitation in August 2017. Matsuyama, who has long been one of the elite ballers in the game considered, was able to put it all together on the green with impressive pit performances over the weekend to put the win on ice.
With Matsuyama, the Masters are winning their sixth first time in the last seven years, the only exception being the epic victory of Tiger Woods in 2019. Five of the six newly crowned champions have yet to win a major before slipping on the green jacket do not have. with the exception that Dustin Johnson won his second major at Augusta National in November 2020.
Matsuyama also cites his place in history as the first Japan-born Masters winner and men’s champion, with his victory coming ten years after he first appeared at Augusta National as a 19-year-old amateur. He finished T27 in those Masters, and scored a 4-under-68 on Sunday to pick up the trophy with a low amateur during a ceremony with Charl Schwartzel.
A decade later, it’s Matsuyama slipping on the green jacket after winning a Masters victory for his age, just one week after Japanese fellow golfer Tsubasa Kajitani won the second annual Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
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CBS Sports will continue to update this story with highlights from the Masters as Matsuyama puts on the green jacket for the first time. Check out the complete rankings of the 85th Masters.