Hideki Matsuyama recorded one of Japan’s biggest international sporting successes after winning the US Masters Golf, a few months before Tokyo was to host the Summer Olympics.
His countrymen were preparing for work, and may have stopped to watch the last few holes on TV, when the 29-year-old claimed a one-win victory over American Will Zalatoris in the Masters at Augusta National in Georgia achieved.
With his last hole, Matsuyama became the first Asian player to wear the Green Jacket, and the only Japanese to win a major title. Two women from Japan won majors: Hisako Higuchi at the 1977 LPGA Championship and Hinako Shibuno at the 2019 British Women’s Open.
A shocked Matsuyama, who has never been completely comfortable with the huge media attention he is getting in Japan, has admitted that his victory could boost golf in a country that has struggled to show its love for the sport with big winners to pass.
Matsuyama received the Green Jacket from last year’s winner, Dustin Johnson, a decade after making his Masters debut as an amateur a few weeks after his university town, Sendai, was hit by a deadly tsunami.
“I’m really happy. “My nerves did not start in the second nine, it was right from the start until the last time,” Matsuyama said through an interpreter.
‘I thought of my family today and am very happy that I played well for them. Hopefully I will be a pioneer in this, and many other Japanese will follow. I am glad that I can hopefully open the floodgates and many more will follow me. ”
With the presentations and interviews done, Matsuyama finally relaxes in the hot afternoon light, raises his arms in triumph and breaks out into a broad smile.
A TV interviewer in Tokyo thanked Matsuyama “on behalf of the whole of Japan”, while other sports figures offered their congratulations on social media.
Tomohiro Fukaya, the national team track cyclist, said he arrived early in the morning for practice and watched the last few holes in his car. “The TV commentators were so overwhelmed that they could hardly speak,” he said. tweeted. “I was on the verge of tears, too.”
Saburo Kawabuchi, the former head of the Japanese football association, said he was worried about his blood pressure after getting up in the middle of the night to watch Matsuyama hold his nerves over the last day’s game. “It’s hard to find the right words to express how impressed I am,” he said. wrote.
Experienced Japanese golfer Isao Aoki, who won the runner-up to Jack Nicklaus at the US Open in 1980, also offered his congratulations. “Your victory over the Masters – a first for Japan and Asia – is celebrated not only by me but also by every golf fan in Japan,” he said in a statement.
Matsuyama’s victory was a much-needed story as Tokyo prepares to host an Olympics plagued by scandals and security concerns amid the coronavirus pandemic. It also completed a successful fourteen days for Japanese golfers at Augusta, after compatriot Tsubasa Kajitani won the Women’s Amateur Championship there on April 3rd.
Matsuyama, who accompanied Donald Trump and then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on a round of golf at the Kasumigaseki Country Club four years ago – the Tokyo 2020 sports venue – admitted he was only sure of victory when he hit the highway entered. on the last hole.
“I think I shattered everyone’s nerves, so I will try to win more emphatically next time,” he told Japanese TV.