Matsuyama’s Masters win thrilled local golfer
The congratulatory calls began pouring in the minute Japanese golfer Hideki Matsuyama raised his arms on the 18th green of Augusta National, as if 73-year-old Yoshi Yoshida had won the green jacket right along with the 29-year-old Masters champion.
In a way, it felt like he had. Before Sunday, no Asian-born player had ever won the Masters, so when Matsuyama tapped in for a one-shot victory, the Tokyo-born Yoshida kept tapping the answer button on his phone.
“Many friends called me about it and wanted to talk about Hideki winning,” Yoshida said Monday. “They were saying congratulations to me.”
Many of the friends were Japanese, having moved to Franklin and Union counties to be near the Marysville Honda plant. But the celebratory calls also crossed cultures. Scott Hanhart, co-owner and general manager of Darby Creek Golf Course where Yoshida often plays, knew what Matsuyama's win meant to his friend.
“Very, very happy for Yoshi,” Hanhart said. “Hideki is not only a great golfer but a solid young man, so I know (Yoshida) is very proud for him to represent Japan.”
Proud and only slightly loud, given the more reserved culture of Japan.
“He already was very famous, but now he is a hero in Japan,” Yoshida said of Matsuyama. “Most Japanese people are so happy and excited now.”
Japan is going gaga over its Masters-winning golfer largely because it goes gaga over its golf. The nation has nearly 2,400 courses, more than the rest of Asia combined. And almost 10 million of Japan's 125 million people play golf. (About 25 million of the United States' 350 million population play the game).
Japanese golf offers some interesting elements unavailable almost nowhere else. Sure, it is expensive, averaging about $80 per round, and very slow, but the price comes with remote control carts that move along the path and with 19th hole baths. Hmm, golf, sake and a hot bath. Sign me up.
“They are crazy about golf,” said Yoshida, who watched every second of Sunday's final round, and without having to tune in at 3 a.m. like the millions of viewers in Japan who lost sleep because of the 12-hour time difference.
Yoshida grew up playing courses in Tokyo before bringing both his golf and gastronomic game to the United States in 1974. After working as a chef at a French restaurant in Japan, he moved from Seattle to Scottsdale, Arizona, to Aspen, Colorado, to St. Louis before landing in Columbus, where in 1995 he opened Yoshi's Japanese Restaurant in Dublin.
It was at his sushi restaurant on Franz Road that Yoshida first met Matsuyama. The 2014 Memorial Tournament winner was always polite, always hungry and always quiet.
“He came to our restaurant every night during the Memorial Tournament,” Yoshida said, before chuckling. “But he doesn't eat sushi. I would fix him a rice bowl.”
Yoshida and his wife, Naoko, sold the restaurant in 2017 but still try to see Matsuyama during Memorial week. They actually know Matsuyama's caddie and manager/translator better than the player.
“He didn't talk to us much, not many smiles,” Yoshida said.
But that's OK, because while Matsuyama does not often break into a smile, his play at the Masters brought forth smiles from millions of Japanese who had been longing for a major championship winner to call their own.
There were always contenders. Japanese golf legends Isao Aoki, Tommy Nakajima and Jumbo Ozaki flirted with winning majors. On the women's side, Hisako Higuchi and Hinako Shibuno won majors on the LPGA Tour. But Matsuyama has brought his nation joy by winning what many PGA Tour players consider the ultimate prize.
“I watched from the first hole to the end,” Yoshida said. “Especially holes 15 to 18 were very exciting.”
It was on those holes that Matsuyama began to wilt, his decision to play defensively, combined with a four-birdie stretch by Xander Schauffele, resulting in a six-shot lead nearly disappearing.
But in the end Japan had its newest hero. And as Matsuyama exited the 72nd hole, he was not the only Japanese golfer with tears in his eyes. roller@dispatch.com @rollercd