How Hideki Matsuyama’s Masters win could revive golf’s popularity in Japan
Hideki Matsuyama may instantly have risen to the greatest golfing hero Japan has ever known with Sunday’s roller-coaster ride Masters win. Now, however, comes the hard part.Because as challenging as closing the deal on becoming the first Japanese-born male golfer to win a major championship clearly was during Sunday’s frenetic finish, now the shy, workman-like Matsuyama stands at the forefront of what one long-time Japanese golf business observer called “an epoch-making event.”
Japan may comfortably stand as the world’s second largest golf market, accounting for a fifth of the global golf business all by itself, but it is long removed from the country’s golf boom of the late 1980s and ‘90s. With the last decade seeing flat revenues and declining play and players, Matsuyama’s win is an opportunity to inject new life in a nation that has been waiting for a golf moment like this for more tha
In Hideki Matsuyama, Japan gets its long-sought Masters champion Sorry, but your browser needs Javascript to use this site. If you re not sure how to activate it, please refer to this site: https://www.enable-javascript.com/
Japan s Hideki Matsuyama celebrates with his caddie on the 18th green after winning The Masters in Augusta, Georgia, on April 11. | REUTERS Apr 17, 2021
It’s not high fashion, but the brilliant green jacket Hideki Matsuyama donned last weekend after winning the 85th Masters golf tournament is one of the most singular pieces of clothing in the world. It is given only to the winner of that championship, and identifies the wearer as the member of an elite club.