Masterful Matsuyama

April 08-11
Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, Georgia
Round 1, Round 2, Round 3

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

 

Finally. Japan’s son is rising and Hideki Matsuyama now sports a green jacket. The 29-year-old becomes the first from his country to win the Masters and only the second Asian-born player to win one of golf’s four major events.

The closing 18 holes started with uncertainty and ended with a much-needed cushion permitting Matsuyama to close with three bogeys over the final four holes and scored a one-over-par 73 . Matsuyama’s 278 total provided a one-shot win over Masters rookie Will Zalatoris. He is the first Masters champion to score an over-par final round since Trevor Immelman shot 75 in winning the event in 2008.

Matsuyama’s familiarity with Augusta National goes back to eleven years ago when he was invited to play in the 2010 event as winner of the Asia-Pacific Amateur event. In that year and in 2011, he secured low amateur honors.

 

The final round began with Matsuyama having a four-stroke lead over four players — Marc Leishman, Xander Schauffele, Justin Rose and Zalatoris. Matsuyama’s opening tee shot at the par-4 1st sailed wide right and he was most fortunate to escape with a bogey.

Just ahead of him Zalatoris had birdied the opening hole and the par-5 2nd narrowing the margin to one shot before Matsuyama birded the 2nd while Zalatoris bogied the short par-4 3rd.

Eventually Matsuyama expanded his lead courtesy of a crucial 15-foot par-putt at the difficult par-4 5th and added two consecutive birdies at the par-5 8th and par-4 9th holes.

The spread between Matsuyama and his rivals expanded to six shots at one point during the back nine before tightening in the later stages. Schauffele made a major move with consecutive birdies from the 12th thru the 15th holes. At the par-5 15th, Matsuyama assisted matters after rinsing his 2nd shot at the hole and watching his approach bounce off a downslope behind the green and into a far pond on that side. 

 

The par-3 16th showcased Schauffele’s undoing –misplaying his approach with a slight pull that eventually found the pond that menaces the putting surface on the left side. Eventually, he would finish the hole with a triple bogey and his run for the title came to a crashing halt. After grinding throughout the day to get back into contention after the earlier breakdown at the 5th — the inability to apply needed pressure on Matsuyama at that critical juncture only inserts question marks needing answers the next time Schauffele emerges into contention in a major championship.

Matsuyama would bogey the 16th and although he bunkered his approach at the 18th — found the green with his 3rd shot and then two-putted from seven feet away to win by one.

Asian players have had high previous finishes at the Masters — Matsuyama himself, before this year, had a best finish of 5th in 2015. But just as Adam Scott broke through in 2013 as the first Aussie to win a green jacket — the win by Matsuyama is just another clear statement on the globalization of golf and the talent level being demonstrated.

 

The post Tiger Woods / Phil Mickelson era is now in motion and gaining steam as a new generation of players is emerging and displaying their golf prowess.

Coming into this week Matsuyama was ranked 25th in the world — he’s now 15th. In addition, the Summer Olympic Games are planned for Tokyo this summer and golf will once again be one of the sports on the agenda. Guess who’s likely going to be drawing the most eyeballs when that happens?

Masters Notes

 

* Matsuyama becomes the 7th golfer to have won low amateur honors and win a green jacket. That list includes Cary Middlecoff, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Crenshaw, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia.

* The success of Matsuyama was tied to his play at the four par-5 holes. Cumulatively, he was eleven-under-par and that included three eagles.

 

* The Masters was Matsuyama’s 87th start since his last PGA Tour win — the 2017 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone where he scored a 61 in his final round. He has now won 6 times on the PGA Tour and 15 worldwide.

* Those wagering on various players for this year’s Masters could have chosen Matsuyama at 40-1 odds via Caesar’s Sportsbook by William Hill. Other sportsbooks had odds even higher.

* Matsuyama is the 26th of the last 30 winners to have come from the final pairing.

 

* Justin Rose, tournament leader for the first two rounds, limped home during Sunday’s final round scoring a two-over-par 74 and once again failed to secure a Masters title after starting in fine fashion with an opening round of 65. For weekend play Rose scored an unfulfilling total of 146.

* The four round cumulative score of 279 posted by Zalatoris topped the 280-total posted by the last man to win the Masters in his rookie effort — Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979.

 

* Credit CBS-Sports during its telecast for using audio from the Japanese coverage of this year’s event. The emotions of the announcers in Japanese were expressive — both when Matsuyama played fine shots and when he dunked his approach shot in the rear pond at the par-5 15th.

* Kudos to Augusta National for expanding their property footprint – adding extra length to the par-4 5th with the 2019 event. The hole previously was 455 yards until the property expanding permitted a new back tee to be added bringing the hole’s length to 495 yards. Two fairway bunkers on the left side were re-positioned and deepened. The 5th played as the 2nd toughest in relation to par for the final round with a stroke average of 4.35. Overall, the hole’s average was 4.43 allowing the stingiest number of birdies with only seven made for the championship.

* The bigger question regarding the course for the ’22 event will be if the club opts to use the extra land it purchased behind the present 13th tee. Concerns have arisen the hole’s original premise in truly being a major decision to go for the green in two shots is no longer a major concern for world class players. 

 

Pos.	Player	To Par	R1	R2	R3	R4	Total
1	Hideki Matsuyama	-10	69	71	65	73	278
2	Will Zalatoris	-9	70	68	71	70	279
T3	Xander Schauffele	-7	72	69	68	72	281
T3	Jordan Spieth	-7	71	68	72	70	281
T5	Marc Leishman	-6	72	67	70	73	282
T5	Jon Rahm	-6	72	72	72	66	282
7	Justin Rose	-5	65	72	72	74	283
T8	Corey Conners	-4	73	69	68	74	284
T8	Patrick Reed	-4	70	75	70	69	284
T10	Tony Finau	-3	74	66	73	72	285
T10	Cameron Smith	-3	74	68	73	70	285
T12	Stewart Cink	-2	74	69	72	71	286
T12	Brian Harman	-2	69	69	74	74	286
T12	Si Woo Kim	-2	71	69	74	72	286
T12	Robert MacIntyre	-2	74	70	70	72	286
T12	Kevin Na	-2	75	70	70	71	286
T12	Webb Simpson	-2	70	76	70	70	286
T18	Tyrrell Hatton	-1	71	74	74	68	287
T18	Collin Morikawa	-1	73	69	75	70	287
T18	Scottie Scheffler	-1	73	72	71	71	287
T21	Harris English	E	74	71	73	70	288
T21	Viktor Hovland	E	73	70	72	73	288
T21	Shane Lowry	E	71	73	72	72	288
T21	Phil Mickelson	E	75	72	69	72	288
T21	Justin Thomas	E	73	67	75	73	288
T26	Abraham Ancer	1	75	69	75	70	289
T26	Paul Casey	1	73	74	73	69	289
T26	Cameron Champ	1	72	68	77	72	289
T26	Matt Jones	1	74	69	74	72	289
T26	Louis Oosthuizen	1	76	70	72	71	289
T26	Ian Poulter	1	74	73	72	70	289
T26	Charl Schwartzel	1	74	71	72	72	289
T26	Bubba Watson	1	74	70	73	72	289
T34	Matt Fitzpatrick	2	74	70	73	73	290
T34	Ryan Palmer	2	74	68	73	75	290
T34	Michael Thompson	2	72	72	75	71	290
T34	Matt Wallace	2	74	72	71	73	290
T38	Martin Laird	3	74	71	72	74	291
T38	Henrik Stenson	3	73	71	71	76	291
T40	Christiaan Bezuidenhout	4	70	76	74	72	292
T40	Mackenzie Hughes	4	72	72	72	76	292
T40	Sebastián Muñoz	4	74	73	71	74	292
T40	Joaquin Niemann	4	75	71	70	76	292
T40	Bernd Wiesberger	4	74	66	74	78	292
T40	Gary Woodland	4	73	72	75	72	292
T46	Bryson DeChambeau	5	76	67	75	75	293
T46	Tommy Fleetwood	5	74	70	73	76	293
T46	Brendon Todd	5	73	71	76	73	293
49	Jason Kokrak	7	71	76	71	77	295
T50	Billy Horschel	8	76	71	73	76	296
T50	José María Olazábal	8	75	71	75	75	296
52	Francesco Molinari	9	74	73	69	81	297
53	Jim Herman	10	76	70	76	76	298
54	Adam Scott	11	74	73	79	73	299
CUT	Daniel Berger	4	75	73			148
CUT	Sergio Garcia	4	76	72			148
CUT	Max Homa	4	74	74			148
CUT	Matt Kuchar	4	78	70			148
CUT	Jimmy Walker	4	75	73			148
CUT	Lanto Griffin	5	76	73			149
CUT	Dustin Johnson	5	74	75			149
CUT	Kevin Kisner	5	72	77			149
CUT	Brooks Koepka	5	74	75			149
CUT	Mike Weir	5	78	71			149
CUT	Lee Westwood	5	78	71			149
CUT	Danny Willett	5	76	73			149
CUT	Dylan Frittelli	6	76	74			150
CUT	Rory McIlroy	6	76	74			150
CUT	Cheng Tsung Pan	6	79	71			150
CUT	Robert Streb	6	75	75			150
CUT	Zach Johnson	7	77	74			151
CUT	Bernhard Langer	7	74	77			151
CUT	Victor Perez	7	78	73			151
CUT	Patrick Cantlay	8	79	73			152
CUT	Brian Gay	8	78	74			152
CUT	Charles Osborne (a)	8	76	76			152
CUT	Jason Day	9	77	76			153
CUT	Carlos Ortiz	9	82	71			153
CUT	Ian Woosnam	9	76	77			153
CUT	Joe Long (a)	10	82	72			154
CUT	Sandy Lyle	12	81	75			156
CUT	Hudson Swafford	12	73	83			156
CUT	Fred Couples	13	79	78			157
CUT	Sungjae Im	13	77	80			157
CUT	Vijay Singh	15	79	80			159
CUT	Tyler Strafaci (a)	17	80	81			161
CUT	Larry Mize	19	84	79			163
DQ	Matthew Wolff	E