The 85th annual Masters Golf Championship is now in the records book, and although it is pretty easy to say that it lacked the riveting drama that is often a constant at the Augusta National Golf Club, the 2021 Masters was a most historic one. Hideki Matsuyama of Japan won the tournament by one stroke, making him the first person from that country to win one of golf’s four major championships open to male linksters. On Thursday of tournament week, 86-year-old Lee Elder joined Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player as ceremonial starters. Elder broke the color barrier at the Masters in 1975 as the first black man to compete at Augusta.
Sunday evening’s green jacket ceremony in the Butler Cabin marked the second time that Matsuyama has been there for the end-of-tournament awards session. Matsuyama won the Asian Pacific Amateur in both 2010 and 2011 and he was the low amateur and silver cup winner at the 2011 Masters. A child prodigy who learned the game at his father’s driving range business, the 29-year-old Matsuyuma has now added a major championship title to his already impressive golfing resume that includes five wins on the PGA Tour and eight victories on the Japan Tour. By becoming the first Japanese citizen to prevail at the Masters, he most probably sets himself up to become a veritable folk hero in his homeland. His win will have him regarded as the Arnold Palmer of Japan for as long as there are golfers in Japan.
For the second time in five months, the Masters didn’t exactly start on the back nine Sunday afternoon. Following a rain delay on Saturday afternoon during third-round play, Hideki took advantage of the softer course conditions by making his birdie putt on the seventh hole. He closed out the front nine with at 1-under-par 35. The back nine on Saturday was the place where Matsuyama pulled away from the rest of the world-class field. Hideki made birdies on the 11th and 12th holes, eagled the par-5 15th hole, and added birdies on the 16th and 17th holes. His back-nine 6-under-par 30 gave him a 65 for the day and a four-stroke lead over the rest of the field.
Sunday dawned and nothing really happened to shake up the leader board. Matsuyama built his lead to five strokes as his chasers matched their birdies with bogeys. Spaniard Jon Rahm shot a 6-under-par 66, but he was too far back in the pack to make an impact. Xander Schauffele looked like he could catch Hideki after making four birdies on the back nine, but his hopes were drowned on the watery par-3 16th hole as he dunked his tee shot and carded a triple-bogey. Relative unknown Will Zalatoris, a non-PGA Tour member who finished in sixth place at last September’s U.S. Open, was always close, ending up one shot removed from the top of the leader board. A trio of bogeys on the 15th, 16th and 18th holes by Matsuyama made the final outcome closer than it seemed, but those hiccups had no real impact on the outcome.
Most fans of the game didn’t have Hideki Matsuyama on their short list of possible Masters’ contenders prior to the tournament. Once the second-ranked golfer in the world, he hadn’t won on the PGA Tour since 2017. Coming into the Masters, Hideki was in 33rd place in the Fed Ex Cup standings and was ranked 25th in the world. He had only one top 10 in 16 PGA Tour events this year. Perhaps he was best remembered by fans of the game for his meltdown at the 2017 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow that was eventually won by Justin Thomas. With just nine holes to go, Matsuyama held a one-stroke lead. However, he missed a number of makeable short putts when the tourney was on the line, recording five bogeys over the course of the final nine holes.
All that is a distant memory as Hideki will parlay this victory at the Masters into a lifetime of fame in his home country. Japan is a country of golf nuts and as earlier stated, this was his Arnold Palmer moment. I see Matsuyama as a Francesco Molinari-type major champion. This wasn’t expected and it may never happen again, but like Molinari, who became the first Italian to win a major title, his victory at the 2021 Masters will endear him to the common man in his home country. He can hang his hat on his Masters triumph even if he never again prevails on golf’s center stage.
Matsuyama doesn’t exactly have the type of game that can excel at the majors although he had a brilliant week of short-game dynamics with a heavy dose of up-and-down par saves. Prior to the Masters he was ranked 82nd on tour in scrambling and 166th in shots gained putting. Yet at this year’s Masters he was just under 90 percent in scrambling, best in the field. It was a magical week for Hideki Matsuyama and his win was one for the ages.
With names like Matsuyama, Zalatoris, Schauffele and Marc Leishman on the final-day leader board, the 2021 Masters was as much about those who didn’t make it into the weekend. Four-time major winner Brooks Koepka rushed his recovery from March knee surgery and missed the cut. So too did defending champion Dustin Johnson, four-time major champ Rory McIlroy, past Masters champ Sergio Garcia, and former PGA champ Jason Day. Matthew Wolff and Daniel Berger missed the cut as well.
Jose Maria Olazabal of Spain did make it to the weekend following rounds of 75-71 to make the cut by one stroke. Olazabal is 64 years old, won green jackets in 1994 and 1999, and finished tied for 50th place. It was an impressive weekend for the aging senior golfer.
Finally, a few short facts about runner-up Will Zalatoris. Zalatoris went to college at Wake Forest. He was raised in Dallas and was the 2014 U.S. Junior champ. His teammates on the 2017 U.S. Walker Cup team included Collin Morikawa and Cameron Champ. He was born in San Francisco and lived there as a youngster. As a 6-year-old, former U.S. Open champion Ken Venturi watched Will hit golf balls on the range at the San Francisco Golf Club at the southern end of Lake Merced. Will’s parents asked Venturi if he had any advice for them with regard to Will’s golf game. The blunt answer Venturi gave was a classic. He said, “Your job is to stay out of his way.” Thus far that has been great advice.
The 2021 Masters is in the record books. It was a life-changing moment for Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama and was a moment of historical impact for Lee Elder. Now onto the PGA at Kiawah.
