The return of the Open Championship after a two-year hiatus will be cause for celebration this week. But reminders of why it was canceled last year still linger.
Hideki Matsuyama’s Masters triumph in April gave the golf-loving country of Japan its first-ever men’s Major title. And the 29-year-old joined Y.E. Yang as the only Asian-born male players to win a Major.
This week’s AT&T Byron Nelson marks Matsuyama’s first start since his victory at Augusta National, where the 29-year-old became the first player from Japan to win a men’s Major championship.
Jones has served as the national coach for the Japan Golf Association since October 2015 and has no doubt that Matsuyama’s win will inspire the next wave of Japanese golfers to chase equally lofty goals.
Hideki Matsuyama may instantly have risen to the greatest golf hero Japan has ever known with his roller-coaster-ride Masters win. Now, however, comes the hard part.
This storyline from Augusta has the chance to impact pro golf well into the future. In the shadow of Dustin Johnson’s comprehensive win at the Masters, a narrative that has been building for years continued to gather steam at Augusta. It’s the story of the transformation of men’s professional golf by a group of young Read more…
Though Matsuyama has been one of the best players in the world for a while, becoming a Masters champion will vault him into higher echelons of the game. Here are a few things you might not know about the Japanese star.
However, while Matsuyama can rid his country’s Major monkey at Augusta National today, he is far from the Land of the Rising Sun’s only star. Here are the best golfers of Japanese heritage.
Matsuyama’s goal? It’s probably to take out any active pushing or swinging in his putting stroke so he can let Sir Isaac Newton shoulder some of the load.
Australian Golf Digest
