WAYNE RILEY

A former member of the European Tour and two-time winner, Wayne is part of the Sky Sports golf team. He writes exclusively for Golf Monthly

Well, it wasn’t a vintage Masters in the sense there wasn’t a sustained challenge from the chasing pack, but Hideki Matsuyama was brilliant and his victory is a significant one for the world of golf. I thought the back nine was going to be totally devoid of drama when he was standing on the 12th tee with a six-shot lead, but some questionable shots into par 5s and a bounce back from Xander Schauffele gave us some excitement, albeit for a few minutes only. Still, when someone plays that well, all you can do is admire them.

It was still a good tournament, though. The patrons made a difference and it was a lot better than November, but it never really got into fifth gear. It was a tournament for the golfing connoisseur. Of course, the narrative heading into the final round was how Hideki would handle the pressure and expectation in Japan, and he did that admirably after his little wobble at the 1st hole. Not having a professional caddie but rather his friend on the bag seemed to help as he kept Hideki nice and calm and smiling for the most part. Sure, there were signs of nerves towards the end, but he striped his drive on 18 and left himself what everyone wants: a tap-in for a Major Championship. Hats off to him.

There were some other great performances, too. Justin Rose started things off with an incredible 65 when only two others broke 70, Will Zalatoris looked like a superstar in the making, Robert Macintyre impressed on debut and Jon Rahm gave us some excitement with a fine closing 66. Another player who got my attention was Jose Maria Olazabal, who made his first Masters cut since 2014. He was quite emotional, partly because of his achievement and partly because his close friend Seve Ballesteros would have turned 64 on the Friday.

I’m always asked about Seve, who’s somehow not been with us for a decade now. I played plenty of golf with him and he was just a special person. One particular story that comes to mind is the first time I played with him, in the 1986 Irish Open at Portmarnock. I was leading going into the third round and he was in his pomp at this point. We went hammer and tongs – I was just a young whippersnapper and he was Seve – and the whole of Ireland seemed to be there.

We were the top two after three rounds so were paired together again on Sunday. I was playing really well and he was not at his best. We got to the 7th – a par 3 down the hill – and it was blowing hard. He was one shot in front but I hit a lovely 4-iron to 15 feet. I looked at him, he looked at me and then hit a big, ropey hook into the cabbage down the left, which was about two feet high and wet. Between his ball and the flag was a little hump about the size of a small table. I looked at my caddie and we both thought “we’re in business here”. But he hits this amazing shot which runs up to the top of this table, sits there for a bit, trickles down the other side and lips out. I started laughing and he looked at me and gave me a little wink.

Of course, I missed my putt. He went on to win and I think I came fourth, but it was a good duel for a couple of days. He came up to me on the last green and said, “Eh, you play very good, but me, I just play a little better”, after which we both laughed. He was just brilliant.

Another time, I had a hole-in-one at Crans-sur-sierre, where Seve had re-designed some of the greens. He famously never had a hole-in-one during his career and I knocked my tee shot in at the par-3 13th when I was paired with him. You could see he was annoyed walking off the tee and I said “Nice, that’s another one. I had one a couple of years back too” or words to that effect, then “How many have you had Seve?”

He was off and he wouldn’t talk to me for about four holes! He was a great competitor and had a bit of a temper at times, but what a man – swashbuckling, charismatic, friends with everyone and fiercely loyal to the European Tour. He was my hero. He’s sorely missed.

“Seve was charismatic, friends with everyone and fiercely loyal to the European Tour”