By Alan Shipnuck
AUGUSTA, Ga.—The new Masters champ is so down-to-earth he drives a minivan. He is so private that no one knew anything about his love life until well after he was married; probed why he had kept it a secret for so long he said, “Because no one asked.” The new Masters champ is so soft-spoken the joke among the press corps is that while he doesn’t speak much English he speaks even less Japanese, favouring terse, vague answers when interrogated by the omnipresent reporters from his homeland.

There is absolutely nothing colourful about Hideki Matsuyama except the little splashes of neon in his wardrobe and the pyrotechnics produced by his golf clubs. But he claimed this Masters with a vivid performance, taking control of the tournament with a garish back nine on Saturday and then with ruthless efficiency building what turned out to be an insurmountable lead on the front nine of the final round. Matsuyama, 29, becomes only the second man from Asia to win a major championship, joining Korea’s Y.E. Yang, a fun-loving character who quickly faded away. The new Masters champ has long been a world-class player—this is his sixth PGA Tour victory, including a pair of WGCs—but now he has a chance to become one of the sport’s biggest stars. Japan is a golf-mad country and Matsuyama will be a focus of these Games. (There is already speculation he will have the honour of lighting the Olympic cauldron; Matsuyama drew some laughs in the champions press conference when he said he would consider it if his schedule allows.) ESPN analyst Andy North said on-air that this Masters victory could be worth $1 billion dollars to Matsuyama in ancillary income, a fantastical number that nevertheless captures the scale of this win in Japan and throughout Asia.

“I think Hideki could compare to Ichiro and Sadaharo Oh,” says Nobuhito Sato, a board member of the Japanese Tour, raising the name of two national treasures in trying to explain what a green jacket means in Japan. Ichiro is the future Major League Baseball Hall of Famer and Oh is the all-time leader in home runs in Japanese baseball and a crossover figure who was immortalized in a Beastie Boys lyric.

On Sunday evening Matsuyama stayed in character, declining to call himself the greatest Japanese golfer of all time, though he did allow, “I am the first to win a major. If that’s the bar, I’ve set it.” He added, “It’s thrilling to think a lot of youngsters in Japan are watching today.”

They may not build a statue to Matsuyama amidst the neon billboards of Shibuya but around Augusta National he should at least get a water fountain dedicated to his back nine on Saturday, when he shot a back-nine 30 to roar to a four-stroke lead. It summoned some of the most momentous third rounds in Masters history, which propelled legendary players to victory: Hogan’s 66 in ’53; Nicklaus’s 64 in 1965, which he has called perhaps the finest round of his career; Seve’s 68 in ’80, the low score on a brutal day; Tiger’s 65 in ’97, which put him on the doorstep of history; Dustin Johnson’s bogey-less 65 last year on the way to a Masters scoring record.

“When he’s on, he’s on,” says Joaquin Niemann, a Presidents Cup teammate of Matsuyama. “I think this week he’s definitely on. I think nobody can stop him when he’s playing like that.”

On Sunday, the defining question was how Matsuyama would perform with the weight of a nation on his shoulders. A nervy block off the first tee didn’t inspire confidence. When he tapped in for bogey on the first green, Matsuyama had been on the course for 14 minutes and already his lead was down to one stroke thanks to a birdie-birdie start by the young upstart Will Zalatoris. But Matsuyama steadied himself with an up-and-down for birdie out of the greenside bunker on the par-5 second hole and then a crucial 15-footer to save par on the 5th hole. By then Zalatoris had cooled off and a host of would-be contenders (Xander Schauffele, Justin Rose, Mark Leishman, Jordan Spieth) were all going backward on a breezy day. Matsuyama has one of the heaviest hits in the game and he overpowered the par-5 8th hole, sealing the birdie with a delicate chip. (His work around the greens was sensational throughout this Masters.) On the exacting 9th hole he drove it all the way to the upslope and then feathered a wedge to kick-in range.

By the time Matsuyama reached Amen Corner his lead was a whopping six strokes. He showed a certain amount of daring—some might call it recklessness—going for it on 15, and his laser-like 4-iron flew the green and wound up in the water hazard that’s part of the 16th hole, leading to a momentum-shifting bogey. Schauffele (who played holes 3-5 in four-over par to seemingly blow himself out of the tournament) birdied 15 to cut the lead to two strokes, capping a spirited run, but he promptly rinsed his tee shot on 16. Matsuyama played defence from there, ultimately finishing a lone stroke ahead of Zalatoris.

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“I had a really good warmup and I felt really good going to first tee until I stood on first tee and it hit me that I was in the last group of the Masters and then I was really nervous,” Matsuyama said. “But my plan today was to do my best for 18 holes. That was my thought throughout the day, just Do my best, do my best.”

That was plenty good enough, and now there is little doubt what will be served at next year’s Champions dinner. Webb Simpson, one of Matsuyama’s favourite mealtime companions, told GolfDigest.com on Sunday, “We always get sushi. He loves sushi. When I played in the Dunlop Phoenix [tournament in Tokyo], he invited me to dinner, and the restaurant shut down for him. He ordered for me. Yeah, that was a little more like kind of the raw sushi, like the stuff was living, and then it was killed and we ate it right away.”

Ben Walton

Matsuyama brings his interpreter, Bob Turner, to those dinners so the conversation can flow. He has little interest in acclimating to life on the PGA Tour, keeping his wife and child in Japan while he road-trips to tournaments. His love for his homeland has long defined his Masters experience. Matsuyama first announced his intentions in 2011, earning low amateur honors when he finished 27th thanks to a sizzling third round 68. He had almost skipped that trip to Augusta because less than a month earlier the Great Sendai Earthquake struck the Tohoku region of Japan, from where Matsuyama hails. A series of tsunamis battered the coastline and a 50-foot wave flooded the Fukushima nuclear plant, triggering a meltdown and setting off a series of explosions. The death toll eclipsed 19,000. He dedicated his star-making performance at that Masters to his countrymen, saying, “I was very happy to be here, to play four rounds here at Augusta. There are some hard times right now in Japan. Hopefully my play was able to bring some encouragement to those that are in need right now.”

Now, with the Tokyo Olympics being compromised by a global pandemic, Japan once again turns its lonely eyes to Matsuyama. But who is the man beneath all the expectations?

“We’ve had a lot of fun when we play together,” says Niemann, a native of Chile who speaks passable English. “Obviously, we don’t speak much, but we can understand, and we can like see in the eyes when you’re laughing or something funny happens.” When they bump into each other on the range Matsuyama gives his pal a pound and says in English, “Let’s go, Niemann.”

“It’s funny to hear that word from him because you never hear him say anything,” says Niemann.

Or perhaps Matsuyama eschews small-talk because he has an old-school belief that the glory is in the achievement, not the pontificating. This man of few words has now earned the two most coveted in the golf lexicon: Masters champion.

Alan Shipnuck is a partner with the Fire Pit Collective.

MORE MASTERS 2021 STORIES FROM GOLF DIGEST:
The clubs Hideki Matsuyama used to win at Augusta National
Hideki Matsuyama’s caddie found a touching way to celebrate their win on the 18th green
You just won the Masters. Here’s what happens next
A comprehensive history of every change made to Augusta National Golf Club
Green jacket and gold medal? Why Hideki Matsuyama should be the Tokyo Olympics favourite
Hideki Matsuyama’s pause might be pretty, but here’s why it might not be for you

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WILL ZALATORIS
AGE 24
LIVES PLANO, TEXAS

By Will Zalatoris
My mom ran track at Oregon, middle distance, the 400 and 800. They’re brutal races. You’re sprinting as long as humanly possible. Golf can be similar. She always said to me: “Don’t force anything early.” She doesn’t play much golf, but she gets the mentality. Playing Monday qualifiers and trying to shoot 65 every time is like running the 400; you’ve got to be a little sick to do either. I spent 17 months doing that. There were dark times. It took the four-month layoff for me to remember who I am as a golfer and how to have fun again.

I grew up at Bent Tree Country Club in Texas. When I was 9, my parents would drop me off, and there was a group of kids who played together every day. It was our hangout. Pretty quickly, I quit all other sports. I knew I wanted to be a pro.

I went to a private high school because I missed a ton of classes playing the AJGA schedule. I would’ve been in truancy court if I had gone to public high school. I’d always wanted to go to Stanford, but I got offered the Arnold Palmer Scholarship at Wake Forest, and that made my decision easy. I’m fortunate Coach Jerry Haas took a chance on me. He saw how badly I wanted to be good, and he saw enough good golf from me to know it was in there somewhere.

People assumed I became a psych major because I wanted to get into sport psychology. It’s a lot of math, but being able to spend a few classes reading Malcolm Gladwell and Carol Dweck was fun. Through college, I kept improving. I went to Q school and got some PGA Tour starts in 2018. I had finished my major requirements, so I figured why not take the chance. I left school after my senior fall.

I made one cut in my six starts. In college I could have a bad week and still crank out a top 15. When I got out on tour, I felt like I had to always play perfect. That’s where the problems started. I wanted to be good so badly that I put too much pressure on myself. I kept pushing and working, but I wasn’t getting better. I didn’t have status anywhere, so other than those six events I was playing Monday qualifiers.

It was a rough time. Wanting to be great got me to the tour, but sometimes the thing that makes you good can be the thing that undermines you. When you’re in the middle of it, you might not know it’s happening. I started working with Troy Denton. He made me see that it’s great to want to be good, but you have to have some fun. You can’t expect 72 holes of perfect golf every week.

He helped me embrace my style. I’ll hit a bunch of greens one day, and that’s how I’ll score. The next I’ll miss a lot of greens, but I’ll make everything. I can shoot back-to-back 68s that way.

Mike Ehrmann
Will Zalatoris reacts on the second tee during the third round of the 2021 Masters at Augusta National.

I played Korn Ferry events in 2019, but I didn’t get my tour card. I came out firing at the first Korn Ferry event of 2020, finishing T-4. I had another top 10, and then COVID shut the world down. When they announced there would be no 2020 graduates from Korn Ferry to the PGA Tour, one year on Korn Ferry became two.

I was lucky. In Texas, we couldn’t practice, but we could play. It brought me back to being a kid. I’d go to the course, carrying my bag, playing with my buddies, just trying to beat the crap out of each other. Our crew of Davis Riley, Kevin Dougherty and Tony Romo played money games five days a week for four months. It made us all really sharp. When tournaments started up, I was ready to go. I realized I don’t need to be on the range for hours; I need to play. The shutdown simplified things.

From June to September, I had eight top 10s on the Korn Ferry, including my first win. The USGA cancelled local qualifying for the U.S. Open, but one of the exempt groups was the top five players on the Korn Ferry. That’s how I got my start at Winged Foot. I probably wouldn’t have been there if it weren’t for COVID. I was so focused on staying fresh for Korn Ferry events, I likely wouldn’t have played a local qualifier.

Looking back, I’m like, Oh my God, that was my week. The hole-in-one was stupid. I had a rocky start; then I striped a 9-iron on the seventh. I didn’t see it go in. Good thing because it would’ve gotten me all jacked up. Then came the shot on 13. I hit the stick, and it popped out to two feet. I needed all 220 yards to catch my breath. If that had gone in, I would’ve been a wreck. I finished T-6 and had a few nice finishes on the PGA Tour. Now I have special temporary membership for 2021.

When I first turned pro, it was work. I still want it just as bad, but I’m playing with a lot of gratitude. I know how much Monday qualifiers suck. It puts being here in perspective. It’s fun now.

I need a win to make the FedEx Playoffs. Might sound overly confident, but it reminds me of being asked, “What makes you think you can compete against the best players in the world?” It’s like running the 400. You gotta be a little sick. —with Keely Levins

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As with most telling of tales, the stories tend to grow a little longer over time. Or perhaps not. When you have a place as special as Augusta National, some stories—heck, most stories—tend to actually be true to some degree. Here are some of the most spoken-about myths that circulate regarding the Masters along with our own Snopes-like assessments of their veracity.

The club lays ice on the azalea beds to help them bloom for the tournament
The Masters is known for its abundance of spring colours, and none is as synonymous with the tournament as its azaleas, resplendent in their bright pink, red and purple colours. And what would the Masters be without them? So, it stands to reason the club would spare no expense to get the timing of the bloom for the second week of April, right? Um, no. Come on, be serious. For starters the ice would either shock the plants or melt fast, plus you’d pretty much have to have your own ice-manufacturing facility to make enough cubes to cover so much ground. While this rumour ran pretty hard for a number of years, thankfully most—but not all—Masters patrons have come to their senses.

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• • •

Hostages were once taken at the club by a man demanding to speak to President Reagan
Since it’s basically impossible to get on the grounds at all without a proper introduction, this on the surface would seem far-fetched. Except it is absolutely true. In October 1983, Charles Davis barreled his pickup truck through a gate, made his way to the pro shop and took five hostages, demanding to speak to President Reagan, who was playing a round of golf on the course that day. Thankfully the incident ended without anyone being harmed. If your curious for more, our Dave Kindred wrote this detailed piece about the unbelievable incident.

While President Reagan was playing golf at the Augusta National Golf Club, Charles Davis drove his truck through Augusta National’s gates to try to talk to him.

• • •

There’s a house in the middle of a Masters parking lot that the owners won’t sell
Augusta National, in its efforts to make the patron experience as enjoyable as possible, has acquired a fair amount of property surrounding the club so that it could offer free Masters parking to patrons within a reasonable walk of the gates. As expected, the club has been generous in its offerings and has met little resistance—with one notable exception. A small, three-bedroom home belonging to Herman and Elizabeth Thacker sits smack in the middle of the activity. Despite repeated attempts from the club to purchase it, the answer has always remained a polite, but firm no (Herman passed away in 2019). Perhaps it is because they are hopeful one day to have a Masters participant as a house guest. Their grandson is the PGA Tour’s Scott Brown, who has yet to qualify for a Masters invitation.

Photo via Google

• • •

There is a lone palm tree on the course
Given how orderly everything is at Augusta National, finding something out of the ordinary is a rarity. Yet arborists who roam the course will notice a one-of-a-kind for ANGC on the fourth hole—a lone palm tree that stands sentinel to the right of the green, camouflaged by other surrounding trees. In recent years, the club cut back the trees and brush and now the Palmetto is a highly visible sight on the par 3. (Kindred has a story about it, too.)

Christian Iooss

• • •

The telecast pipes in fake bird sounds
This is one that has had some legs, with bird aficionados claiming the sounds they were hearing were not birds indigenous to the Augusta area. Not that the suspicions are without some merit. At the 2000 PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club, CBS got caught by eagle-eared ornithologists who recognized the sounds they were hearing could not be from birds in Louisville. When called on it, the network fessed up, which only ramped up the suspicion it was doing the same at Augusta National. The accusations got to a point where the New York Post reached out to Augusta National for comment during the 2001 Masters, bringing the following reply: “The birds you hear are live and they are indigenous to Augusta.” Well OK, then.

• • •

Cattle roamed the club grounds during World War II to maintain the course
When the club closed shortly after the 1942 Masters, it remained closed for several years due to World War II as many members and employees joined the war effort. With the club not financially secure at the time, co-founder Bobby Jones bought 200 cattle, figuring that not only would their grazing keep the grounds in acceptable condition, but that they could later be sold (see photo above). On the surface, a solid idea. However, according to Masters.com, “Things did not turn out as planned. With the Club closed, workers stopped the annual planting of winter grass, and as the bermudagrass on the grounds became dormant it provided little in the way of food and nourishment for the cattle. That led to a problem: the cows started eating the famous azaleas and the bark off young trees at Augusta National.” Ah, the best-laid plans …

• • •

Every champion donates a club to Augusta National for its champions collection
Not quite. Although this is a long-held tradition, an examination of the collection (which includes the 4-wood Gene Sarazen used for his famed double eagle and a number of other impressive artefacts) reveals one glaring omission. For reasons unknown, there is no club from 1992 Masters champion Fred Couples. Perhaps one day Freddie will let us in on why.

Jamie Squire/Getty Images Augusta National is missing a club from Fred Couples 1992 Masters win.

• • •

Hazardous chemicals are put in the ponds and creeks to keep them clean
The ponds and creeks are without question immaculate at Augusta National. But it has nothing to do with anything nefarious. Using a food-colouring-like dye, golf courses can give their ponds a rich, dark colour bordering on black, which provides a very consistent look while being perfectly safe. As for being dangerous to any wildlife, forget it. In fact, the ponds at the club are said to be wonderful fishing spots although the club downplays that bit of information.

Stephen Szurlej

• • •

A patron once was arrested for stealing sand
In 2012, Clayton Baker wasn’t looking to pull off a heist, but he was seeking a unique souvenir—a cup of sand from one of Augusta National’s pristine bunkers. Walking back up the 10th hole after Bubba Watson won in overtime, Baker slipped under the ropes and made his way to the famous free-form bunker and grabbed a cup of sand. This would be the definition of a bad decision. By the time he made it to the 10th tee, he was handcuffed and arrested, setting off a chain of events that ultimately would cost him some $20,000 in various legal fees and other costs associated with the stunt.

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By Ryan Herrington
In fewer than 100 days, the first round of the 2021 Masters is scheduled to begin at Augusta National Golf Club. Whether spectators will be in attendance remains uncertain, however, after a report that officials have informed ticket holders that they are pushing back the ticketing process for this April’s tournament.

According to a story from ESPN, the club updated patrons via an email on Tuesday. “As planning continues on how to stage the 2021 Masters Tournament safely and responsibly, we would like to inform you that Augusta National is delaying the ticket process for Patron Series Badges, which traditionally begins Jan. 1,” the email said, according to ESPN. “Our intention is to communicate our decisions for the 2021 Masters to all patrons of record by the end of January. No further action is needed with your account at this time.”

The club had yet to respond when contacted by Golf Digest about the email or its future plans.

COVID-19 forced the postponement of the 2020 Masters from April until November and prevented the tournament for allowing fans to attend when it was held last fall. Dustin Johnson’s five-stroke victory was witnessed in person only by a select number of Augusta National members and media.

Fans who had tickets for the 2020 Masters were given the option of deferring their use until 2021. Spectators who won the lottery for tickets for 2020 practice rounds also had the option of holding on to them for 2021.

In the coming weeks, Augusta National officials will have to decide from a handful of potential scenarios. The best outcome would be that they get assurances from state and local authorities that it is safe to allow a full or near full complement of ticket holders to attend. The tournament doesn’t release information on how many tickets are sold but estimates are between 30,000-35,000 a day during tournament rounds. Given the current number of coronavirus cases around the country and the continued surge in numbers, even with the early administration of vaccines, this seems an unlikely outcome.

More reasonable would be allowing a smaller number of fans to attend, although the logistics of how many and how the club would determine who could gain admission would need to be worked out and would be a significant challenge to determine.

A third option, of course, would be to play the major for a second straight year without patrons. It was a scenario that Masters chairman Fred Ridley acknowledged as possible in November, but was hopeful that other measures could be put in place to avoid.

“We would need to see objective data that would give us a high level of confidence that we could bring large numbers of people onto the grounds for April,” Ridley said last month. “I think the vaccine … I don’t want to get into medical prognostications, but just logically as a layperson, the vaccine, while it will be wonderful when it happens, there are all kinds of issues that point to beyond April [for the vaccine] as the silver bullet.

“As it relates to [COVID-19] testing, there are some real opportunities there. Our staff has been exploring those very deeply. We have a number of people who are very interested in helping us. It is something we will be looking very hard at. It’ll be a wonderful circumstance if we could test large numbers of people.”

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Why is it that seeing well-heeled pro golfers receive a little white envelope in the mail seems to put a smile on OUR faces? We’re not entirely sure, but it does. (Our favourite part of the invitation is the “RSVP” request.)

So how many golfers should have gotten their own little white envelopes (provided the USPS doesn’t have it sitting in a bin in processing center in Kansas City)? As of the end of 2020, 84 players had qualified for the 2021 Masters, after the addition of those not already eligible who were ranked in the top 50 of the year-end World Ranking (and excluding past champions who are unlikely to compete).

There are still a few ways to earn an invitation between now and April. The winner of any of the 13 remaining full FedEx Cup points event on the PGA Tour not already qualified will get in. Additionally, anyone in the top 50 of the World Ranking a week before the April 8-11 tournament will also get an invitation. And, of course, Augusta National has the right to offer special invitations. (Ordinarily, the winner of the Latin America Amateur, traditionally held in January, would also get into the field, but that tournament has been postponed.)

With less than 100 days until the tournament is scheduled to begin, Masters officials still have a few difficult decisions to make between now and April, most notably whether to allow patrons to attend the tournament given the continued rise in cases of COVID-19 or to play the tournament without fans as was the case when the postponed 2020 Masters was held in November. Until then, we’ll just let those who got their white envelopes revel in the moment and dream of teeing it up in front of a gallery of some sort in four months.

2021 Masters field

Abraham Ancer
Daniel Berger
Christiaan Bezuidenhout
Ángel Cabrera
Patrick Cantlay
Paul Casey
Cameron Champ
Stewart Cink
Corey Conners
Fred Couples
Jason Day
Bryson DeChambeau
Harris English
Tony Finau
Matthew Fitzpatrick
Tommy Fleetwood
Dylan Frittelli
Sergio Garcia
Brian Gay
Lanto Griffin
Tyrrell Hatton
Jim Herman
Billy Horschel
Viktor Hovland
Mackenzie Hughes
Sungjae Im
Trevor Immelman
Dustin Johnson
Zach Johnson
Kevin Kisner
Brooks Koepka
Jason Kokrak
Matt Kuchar
Martin Laird
Bernhard Langer
Marc Leishman
Joe Long (a)
Shane Lowry
Sandy Lyle
Hideki Matsuyama
Rory McIlroy
Phil Mickelson
Larry Mize
Francesco Molinari
Collin Morikawa
Sebastian Muñoz
Kevin Na
Joaquin Niemann
José Maria Olazábal
Louis Oosthuizen
Carlos Ortiz
Charles Osborne (a)
Ryan Palmer
C.T. Pan
Victor Perez
Ian Poulter
Jon Rahm
Patrick Reed
Justin Rose
Xander Schauffele
Scottie Scheffler
Charl Schwartzel
Adam Scott
Webb Simpson
Vijay Singh
Cameron Smith
Jordan Spieth
Henrik Stenson
Tyler Strafaci (a)
Robert Streb
Hudson Swafford
Justin Thomas
Michael Thompson
Brendon Todd
Jimmy Walker
Matt Wallace
Bubba Watson
Mike Weir
Lee Westwood
Bernd Wiesberger
Danny Willett
Matthew Wolff
Gary Woodland
Tiger Woods

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