Matsuyama Wins the Masters

Last updated on: April 11, 2021 at 8:14 pm by Kermit Zarley

Matsuyama Wins the Masters 2021-04-11T20:14:32-07:00 Kermit Zarley

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Twenty-nine year old Hideki Matsuyama shot a one-over par 73 round today to win the Masters by one stroke over 24-year old Will Zalatoris with a 10-under par total of 278. It was his sixth win on the PGA Tour and his first major. Hideki thereby became the first Japanese male to win a major championship in professional golf. It will no doubt be a very historic occasion in Japanese sports if not Asian sports as well. For, Japan is a nation where golf is a rather popular sport, at least at the driving range.

Earlier in the day, Hideki had as much as a six-stroke lead on the field. He plodded along without doing anything fancy and plotting his round with about a less risk as possible. His only mishap was on the par-five 15th hole where he went for the green on his second shot and found the water. The only players to put any pressure on him were Will Zalatoris and Xander Schauffele.

Xander rattled off a bunch of birdies on the back nine while playing with Hideki in the last twosome. But Xander made a strategic error by going for the pin on the short par three 16th hole, which was tucked left as always on Sunday at the Masters. Xander’s ball landed on the bank beside the left side of the green and bounced into the water. He finished the hole with a disastrous triple bogey 6 that allowed Zalatoris to finish alone in second place with his 70 today.

Actually, Matsuyama had a two-stroke lead over Zalatoris at the last hole. The par-four 18th hole at Augusta National Golf Club–where I played in six Masters tournaments myself–is a very narrow hole lined with trees and having two sand bunkers on the left where your drive lands or rolls. Hideki hit a perfect drive there, right in the middle of the fairway and long, with only a wedge shot to the green. When asked after the round where he felt the most pressure, he said it was on that shot. However, he surprisingly hit a poor wedge shot into the right bunker. In the history of the Masters, that happens so often to players that have been in contention to win on Sunday. It happens way more than their second shot missing the green to the left. Arnold Palmer lost the 1961 Masters to Gary Player when Arnold did that very thing on the last hole. From that right bunker he then blasted poorly and made a double bogey to lose by one stroke.

But Matsuyama hit a respectable shot to ten feet short of the hole, missed his putt and tapped the next one in for a bogey to win by one stroke.

Japan is an interesting place when it comes to golf. Japan has a sizable and prosperous population on a very small piece of real estate. Therefore, land for golf courses is hard to come by. I played in the Pacific Masters north of Tokyo in the late 1970s three years. One time someone took me to a driving range. It had three decks and was full of golfers hitting balls. I’ve never seen so many golfers hitting balls at a driving range. Come to find out, many of them hit the ball quite well but had never played golf! You read that right. Their only association with the game is at these huge, public driving ranges.

In Japan in those days in professional golf tournaments, all of the caddies were females. And several of them did like my caddie did at least one and perhaps all three years (I’ve forgotten); at the completion of the tournament they give their player a set of knitted head covers for your wood clubs as a gift. (This was before metalwoods. And we didn’t really need them because most of used the head covers of the company that made our clubs.) So, although these female caddies usually couldn’t speak English, we thought they had knitted the head covers themselves as a gesture. But I later learned that they had merely bought the head covers at stores for a very low price.

Hideki Matsuyama plays golf life a machine that doesn’t show any emotion. Just the opposite of Tiger Woods with his many fist pumps. But when Hideki walked off the 18th green today, you could barely tell that he was tearing up. His first Masters had been ten years ago at age nineteen as an amateur, and he was the low amateur that year. I’m sure he has been envisioning all those years in between of winning the Masters and he finally did it. It was an historic occasion when defending champion Dustin Johnson performed the unique Masters tradition by putting the Masters green jacket on Hideki to join the elite group of Masters champions. Interestingly, there were only five Americans among the top eleven at the Masters this year. The Masters golf tournament is truly an international sporting event, and Hideki Matsuyama, who seems to understand English somewhat but is not able to speak it, has contributed to continuing that tradition of the Masters being a truly international sporting event.

Previous Post

April 11, 2021

The Religious Creed of Benjamin Franklin

Next Post

April 15, 2021 Congress Is Now Considering Slavery Reparations

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Angels Billy Graham Blog Description Book Reviews Christian Living Christianity Christology Church History Current Events Deity of Christ? Disarmament Eschatology Evangelicalism Ezekiel 38-39 Film Reviews God Golf Gospel Harmonization Health History Holy Spirit Incarnation? Interview Islam Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Jesus Last Empire Literary Announcements Major Championship Winners Masters Monotheism My Books New Testament Old Testament Politics Primitive Weapons Ryder Cup Science Society of Biblical Literature The Bible The Restitution of Jesus Christ Trinitarianism Trinity? Uncategorized Unconditional Love? War on Terrorism

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who prophesied about a locust plague and called for national repentance?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Amos Joel Micah Daniel

Books by This Author Books by Kermit Zarley Blog

See All Titles »