All eyes on hometown hero Hideki Matsuyama in Olympic golf tournament
Hideki Matsuyama will have an entire nation cheering him on when he tries to win the gold medal on native soil this week
Imagine Michael Phelps swimming the 200-meter butterfly in Baltimore, or Usain Bolt running the 100-meter final in Kingston. Now multiply that by about 125 million, and you get the weight of an entire nation that is on Hideki Matsuyama’s shoulders this week in Tokyo.
Matsuyama was already a sporting hero back home in Japan. His win at the Masters in April, becoming the first Japanese male to win a major championship, made him a legend. He received an audience with prime minister Yoshihide Suga. Japanese golf companies saw their shares on the Nikkei index rise nearly 20 percent overnight. ESPN’s Andy North speculated that the victory could be worth up to $1 billion in endorsements in the golf-mad country.
Call it fate, but the same summer Matsuyama slipped on the Green Jacket, he gets to represent his native land at home in the Olympics on Thursday. Matsuyama is used to the swarm of Japanese golf reporters chronicling his every move, but nothing compares to the pressure of trying to win the gold medal on his home soil.
“Since my Masters win I haven’t had the best results so far this summer, so I’m a little bit nervous. But I’m really looking forward to it,” he said on Tuesday. “I think it’s going to be really fun and I’m going to try to do my best to play well.”
Matsuyama didn’t get the preparation he would’ve liked for what may be the most important tournament of his career. He tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in July and was forced to miss the Open Championship. He hasn’t finished in the top-20 of a PGA Tour event since his Masters win.
But he does have something most of the other players in the field don’t: experience playing at Kasumigaseki Country Club. It was on this course, about 20 miles from the center of Tokyo, that Matsuyama first rose to international prominence. His victory in the Asian Amateur in 2010 got him into the 2011 Masters, where he finished as low amateur and earned his first trip into Butler Cabin. Nearly 10 years later to the day, he was back to accept the Green Jacket.
Star-studded field hopes to crush Matsuyama’s Olympic dreams
The field that will compete for the gold medal took a hit when Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau both had to withdraw after positive tests, but it still contains three of the top-10 players and seven of the top-20. Reigning Open champion Collin Morikawa leads the American contingent that also includes Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele, and Patrick Reed. Rory McIlroy is in Tokyo after skipping the Olympics in 2016.
Winning the gold medal will be a special moment for any of them. Justin Rose proudly carried the one he earned in Rio. Rickie Fowler got the Olympic logo tattooed on his forearm after representing the United States in 2016. Being able to call yourself an Olympian for the rest of your life is a special honor that awaits each of the players in Tokyo this week.
But it will be Matsuyama who the eyes of an entire nation will be watching. He’ll tee off with Corey Conners of Canada and Australia’s Marc Leishman at 8:41 a.m. local time on Thursday (7:41 p.m. ET on Wednesday). There may not be any fans allowed onto the course, but millions of television screens, smartphones, and computer monitors across Japan will be tuned in to watch the country’s newest hero.
“This is the first time playing the Olympics, so I’m not sure how I’m going to feel. But I’m going to do my best and try to get myself to the best position possible,” Matsuyama said.
Picture the national elation and pride that came out of Andy Murray beating Roger Federer in London, or Sidney Crosby scoring the “golden goal” in Vancouver. That’s what this country, locked in a devastating pandemic and shut out of the Olympic venues, is hoping for Matsuyama.
He already is wearing green. Now he’s trying to get the gold around his neck.