April 08-11
Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, Georgia
Round 1, Round 2, Round 4

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

In sports the wherewithal to break barriers for the first time can prove to be an immense challenge. It can also provide an immense opportunity.

Sunday's final round for the 85th edition of the Master will feature Hideki Matsuyama's attempt to be the first Japanese player to capture the green jacket -- emblematic of a Masters champion. A win at Augusta would also make him just the 2nd Asian-born player -- following the success of Y.E. Yang - at the 2009 PGA Championship -- to win one of golf's four most prized events.

During 3rd round play the 29-year-old separated himself from a number of challengers, including first and second round leader Justin Rose, with flawless execution resulting in a score of 30 on the back nine that included four birdies and an eagle at the par-5 15th. The seven-under-par 65 matched the low round of the tournament -- which Rose scored during Thursday's first round -- and was bogey-free.

Matsuyama was ranked as high as 5th at the start of the 2018 season. He is now ranked 25th.

The start of Saturday's 3rd round had Rose holding a one-shot lead over two players -- Brian Harman and Masters rookie Will Zaladoris. No fewer than ten players were within three shots of the lead -- including Matsuyama.

Play was suspended shortly after 4:00 PM local time and the course was evacuated for approximately 75 minutes as there were periods of heavy rain that both enabled certain players and confused others -- as previously firm conditions were softened.

Matsuyama will be in the final twosome Sunday along with Xander Schauffele who has crept up the leaderboard and for the briefest of moments was tied for the lead after eagling the par-5 15th with a 60-foot putt.

Hideki's major championship record in recent years has not been good -- his last top ten finish was a T5th at the 2017 PGA Championship. His best Masters finish, up to this point, was 5th in 2015. Matsuyama has won five times on the PGA Tour -- two coming in WGC events with the last visit to the winner's circle taking place at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in August 2017.

A victory Sunday will be of earthquake proportions for the Japanese native. That outcome is certainly not preordained and the cauldron of pressure Matsuyama will face in the final round will be something he has never experienced with so much now on the line.

Masters Notes

* Canadian Corey Conners aced the par-3 6th hole during Saturday's 3rd round. This marked the 6th time the hole has been aced in Masters competition and the first one there in nine years. The hole-in-one also helped Conners in the tournament-- he is six-under-par and five shots behind the leader Matsuyama.

* Scoring average for the 3rd round was 72.42 -- second lowest thus for this year's event. Overall, scoring average for all rounds combined is 73.15.

* The toughest hole to birdie remains the par-4 5th -- only 5 have been made through three rounds. The 5th also remains the hardest hole with an average score of 4.45. The par-4 11th is second at 4.39.