Matsuyama’s win to change golf’s Asia face
Yet another Masters has drawn to a close with sufficient drama to keep the audience on the edge of their seats. A valorous champion has emerged.
Sunday at the Masters. It’s always just a little bit different. The leader, in this case by four shots, gets collywobbles wondering whether he will be able to maintain his lead; the followers resolve to push a little harder to put pressure on the leader to stumble and they to catch up and overtake. Whether Macaulay’s “Horatius” as the leader, The Captain of the Gate, can hold back the attackers or will Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade” of followers’ falter to the cannons on all sides, is to be decided on this fateful day.
The sun is strong. The wind is picking up and swirling in eddies on fairways and greens framed by the loblolly pines, occasionally grabbing the ball and dropping it well short or simply lifting and wafting it into uncharted territory. Moisture is being sucked out of already fast greens and the first cut is allowed to grow long enough that fliers, where the ball has no spin and flies unexpectedly longer, will happen when one least wants them to.
That’s the stage setting. Now, the actors stride across to play their respective parts. Hideki Matsuyama decidedly steady. Jordan Spieth is on a bit of a slippery slope from which he could recover; Will Zalatoris is striding along confident that he will be the true challenger; and Xander Schauffele stumbled badly after a promising start, dropping four shots on the fourth and fifth holes. Justin Rose? The bloom is certainly off.
The difference between Tiger Woods in the lead on the final day and Matsuyama is stark. Woods started winning many tournaments, including Majors, annually and his fellow competitors always felt that they were playing for second place, and therefore his stride and swagger on course reflected the power and selfassurance of the preordained victor. Matsuyama had never won the Masters and, being in the lead for the first time ever, is troubled by intense internal tensions but externally he exudes calm and a contemplative approach.
Adding and deducting for the advances and retreats on the board by all players, Matsuyama’s lead had extended to six shots by the turn. By the time the final pairing finished the 15th, the lead had dwindled down to just two. Schauffele standing on the 16th tee, wishing to increase the pressure further, hoping for Matsuyama to crack, forgot Woods’s dictum of staying away from big numbers. He mishit his intended perfect killer shot and the ball rolled back into the dark water. Matsuyama kept a stoic demeanor while Schauffele felt that he had just lost the tournament. His third shot from the drop zone, 145 yards away instead of the original tee shot of 165 yards, was hit without the necessary confidence as he felt drained of his creativity. It happens. The shot went well left of the green, a very poor chip followed, and two putts left him where he had started the day, with just two holes to play. No advancement no win. While Zalatoris moved ahead with a birdie on 17th, the three-shot lead returned to two but with a different challenger.
Meanwhile, Jon Rahm was mounting a lone charge, but he started from too far back. He ended up tied fifth from relative oblivion to show that as a Spaniard, he is ready to tilt at future windmills.
Matsuyama’s victory is the first Masters win for an Asian. It will electrify Japan. Tommy Nakajima, the commentator for the Japanese broadcast, he who was the first professional golfer to score a thirteen on any hole at the Masters, was crying profusely, unable to convey the joy and the triumph and the glory of this great feat. The championship golf course is just summer grass where warriors dream; they dream of their victories in terms of perfect shots, unbelievable saves, long putts drained to take the honour on the next tee, just as a Samurai may think of the cut and parry and thrust to vanquish the enemy. There wasn’t a dry eye anywhere in that nation of 126 million people. The gesture of Shota Hayafuji, the caddy, the bag carrier a la Bagger Vance, which has gone viral, bowing ceremonially in gratitude to the battlefield that allowed Matsuyama to emerge as the champion reflecting so much as a part of Japanese culture, is incredibly touching.
While waiting for Matsuyama to wilt and fade away, Zalatoris was out on the range loosening up in the event that Matsuyama doubled the 18th, thereby causing a play off. However, he merely bogeyed it and thus won by just one shot. After leading by six shots at one point, three bogeys in the death holes (15, 16, 17, 18) can be seen as a collapse even though he finally emerged as a deserving victor. His victory will cause many waves, a veritable tsunami heading into the Olympics later this year in Tokyo. A new chapter will be scripted in the growth of golf worldwide.
Matsuyama’s victory was etched by his being impeccable around the greens. He faltered on the 15th when his second flew so far over the green that the first bounce was about 12 yards and the ball didn’t trickle into the water, it plunged. He felt that because of Schauffele, who had birdied the last three holes already and would surely birdie the 15th, he needed to be a bit more aggressive to increase or maintain the lead. His overreach caused a two-shot swing away from him; only Schauffele gave it back on the next hole, which was a distinct relief although he could not show it.
The prediction that it was a toss-up between Spieth and Schauffele, two highly talented and creative golfers, as to who could win ended in a tie although Spieth could probably say that the Texans have an edge as Zalatoris came in second.
And so, yet another Masters has drawn to a close with sufficient drama to keep the audience on the edge of their seats. A valorous champion has emerged.
Kampai, Hideki.