Hideki Matsuyama Tries to Add to historic Year on Home Turf

2021 has already been a historic year for Hideki Matsuyama. He’s already become the first Japanese and Asian-born player to win The Masters.

It was a long time coming for the 29 year old from Matsuyama, Japan. He had been knocking on the door of major wins for a few years, and it was finally his time on a fateful Sunday in eastern Georgia, capturing his major first win.

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Now for his next challenge, going for gold in the Olympic games in his home country of Japan.

In 2016, Matsuyama withdrew his name from the field for the Rio Olympics due to concerns about the Zika virus epidemic in Brazil. Many others dropped out of the Olympics, sighting the same reason.

This will be Matsuyama’s Olympic debut, and you just know that he’ll be amped to play. I’m really interested to see how he handles the emotion of playing in his home country for Olympic gold.

We know the moment will not be too big for him. You can bet that he’ll be fine because you don’t win the biggest tournament of your life unless you have nerves of steel.

The prospect of Matsuyama winning gold on the East Course at Kasumigaseki Country Club in Kawagoe, Japan would be a feather that would be one of the sweetest.

The only thing that would be massively unfortunate is the fact that there are no fans allowed at the Olympics, due to Covid-19 concerns. That would be a big detractor and honestly, would be one of the biggest regrets of these Olympics.

He would be the easy crowd favorite, and he’s already one of the betting favorites.

There could be a lot more riding on whether Hideki Matsuyama plays well in Kawagoe, a good finish, even more a win, would be incredible for golf in Japan and across Asia.

Think about all of the children in Japan and Asia that would look at Hideki Matsuyama, if he was to win, and say, “I can do that. I want to be like Hideki”.

Either way, this weekend should inspire a new generation of Asian golfers. Matsuyama could lead the way for that new generation.

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The men’s individual stroke play coverage will begin at 6:30 PM ET on Wednesday evening, Tokyo being 13 hours ahead of the east coast time wise. Golf Channel will cover all four days of the competition.

Hideki Matsuyama has a great chance to win this tournament. A victory would cap off a year that would make him a national hero in Japan, on his way to immortality in Japanese sports.

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