Matsuyama Wins the Green Jacket

It was a pleasure seeing signs of normalcy at Augusta National Golf Club this week. For one, the first major of the year was back in its normal time of the year after the 2020 tournament was played in November due to COVID-19. Even better was seeing patrons back on the grounds (No grand stands but we will certainly take it.) Hearing roars across the course from one hole to the other is part of what makes Augusta so special and it was great to have that back.

Augusta is of course one of the most if not the very most demanding course we see on tour year in and year out. With that being said, we saw some notable names miss the cut in the likes of reigning champion Dustin Johnson, whom won the green jacket last November, Rory Mcilroy who is still in search of his first green jacket to complete the coveted career grand slam, as well as many others. While those guys will be the first to tell you they were disappointed in their performance the same cannot be said for Hideki Matsuyama.

The Japanese born golfer had not won a tournament of any kind since August of 2017. He had ranked as high as #2 in the world after finishing runner up in the U.S open that same year. Many who follow the game closely would have thought with his talent he would have won a major already but there is no better time than the present. Matsuyama took charge in round 3 on the back 9. With an impressive display of scrambling and ball striking he was able to go 6 under par in a 7 hole stretch finishing the round with a bogey free 65 (-7). He was able to build himself a cushion of 4 strokes entering Sunday. He ended up needing every bit of that as both Xander Schaufelle and youngster Will Zalatoris stayed in contention. Schaufelle's blunder at hole 16 leading to a triple bogey was his demise and Zalatoris finished 2nd alone 1 shot back of Matsuyama. Congratulations to Hideki on being the first Japanese born player to win the Masters and any major in PGA tour history. He will look to win his second straight major this coming June at Torrey Pines Golf Course in California.