Hideki Matsuyama has claimed his, and Japan’s, first major as he was able to hold on with a final round 73 to win the Masters by a shot over Will Zalatoris. It was certainly an interesting final round as that took place today and I’ll break it down over three acts.
Act 1: Anything Can Happen
Matsuyama started the round with a four shot lead, but after a poor drive on the first led to a bogey the lead was down to one over Zalatoris, who birdied his first two holes. Matsuyama bounced back to birdie the second and Zalatoris bogeyed the third. While this was happening the other late starters were struggling mightily on the front nine. After a decent start Corey Conners found the bogey train and soon fell out of contention, settling for a 74. Justin Rose and Marc Leishman both couldn’t get anything going and settled for a 74 and 73 respectively. Jordan Spieth bogeyed the first hole and despite a birdie on 2 he was floundering at two over thru eight holes. Xander Scauffele went bogey-bogey-double bogey on holes 3-5 and was also well back of Matsuyama.
The only player making a run was Jon Rahm. Starting the day 11 shots back he was 4 under on the front and after birdie on 12 moved into the top 5. Zalatoris and Matsuyama were both able to scramble well and avoid dropping shots to create separation at the top of the leaderboard. Matsuyama made a 25 footer for par on five which sparked his round.
Act II: Matsuyama Takes Over
Matsuyama found his game after the putt on five and after missing good birdie chances on six and seven he was able to birdie eight and nine from close range. After Zalatoris bogeyed 10 and 12 and the lead ballooned to six shots. Rahm was only able to birdie one of his last six holes and had to settle for a 66 and a tie for fifth.
While Zalatoris faltered Spieth and Schauffele found their games and moved back up the board. After the 13th hole Matsuyama was at -13 and five ahead of Schauffele in second. Spieth and Zalatoris were at -7. At this point it felt like a question of how many shots Matsuyama would win by.
Act III: All Hell Breaks Loose
After birdies at 15 for Zalatoris and at 14 for Schauffele it was getting a bit tighter, but with Matsuyama in the middle of the fairway on 15 it looked like an easy win was in the bag. Instead Matsuyama airmailed the green with a 4-iron and found the water over the back. He was only able to make a bogey from there. Schauffele was in a green side bunker and after scaring the hole with his eagle chip tapped in for birdie to cut the lead to two. While this was happening Zalatoris birdied 17.
Schauffele stepped up to 16 and promptly rinsed his 8-iron in the water and made a triple bogey to fall back to -7 tied with Spieth, who was finished. Matsuyama left his 7-iron on top of the hill and three putted for bogey and now had a two shot lead over Zalatoris. Zalatoris hit his tee shot into a fairway bunker at 18 and after some poor scrambling had 20 feet left for par. He drilled the putt, setting the clubhouse lead at -9.
Matsuyama made a routine par on 17 and after a beautiful drive on 18 looked set for an easy win. However, he hit a poor approach and added a little sweat. All nerves were forgotten after he hit a good bunker shot to six feet. From there he needed two putts to make a bogey and win by a single shot at -10.
The Winner
It wasn’t always an easy day, but despite three bogeys in his final four holes Hideki Matsuyama won the Masters. He is the first man from Japan to win a major and the seventh player to win both low amateur and the Masters. He also continued the trend of golfers winning the Masters after being in the top 10 after the first round (T-2). The 29 year old hadn’t won on tour since 2017. This is his sixth career win. I am so excited for the golf anime that this win will hopefully inspire.
It was another great Masters and I already can’t wait for next year.