Matsuyama’s 62, “The beauty of the game,” said Zalatoris

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif — The round was magnificent, the sort that gets one into the record books as well as the winner’s circle. 

Hideki Matsuyama came from six shots behind Sunday to capture the Genesis Invitational, with a 9-under par 62 at famed Riviera Country Club, and of all the observations arguably the best was provided by the man three shots back in second.

“This is the beauty of this game, you know,” said Will Zalatoris. “Kind of nice when you get beat by somebody who shoots 62 on Sunday. That’s usually going to win a tournament or make a lot of money. Hats off to Hideki, that is just stellar playing.”  

Stellar, dominating, overwhelming, record-setting and not the least triumphant. He finished with a 17 -under 267.  

Matsuyama finished at 17-under 267 and that 62 was the best closing round by a winner since Doug Tewell in 1986.It was one off the course record of 61 set by Ted Tryba in 1999. 

The 31-year-old Matsuyama now has more victories, nine, than any other golfer from Asia. One happens to be from a tournament where he earned not only plaudits and a paycheck but also a green jacket, the 2021 Masters.

As you know there’s no way to play defense in golf. You have no control over the other players and sometimes not even over yourself. On Sunday, the Genesis seemed to belong, in order, to Patrick Cantlay (who shot a one over 72 and tied for 4th), Luke List (who short 68 and tied for 2nd), then Will Zalatoris (who shot a 69 and tied for 2nd), Adam Hadwin (who shot a 65 and tied for 4th), Xander Schauffele (who shot 70 and tied for 4th), and finally Matsuyama.

“Yeah, you know, to win in this tournament was one of my goals ever since I became pro,” said Matsuyama through an interpreter. “After Tiger being the host, that goal became a lot bigger. A little disappointed that I wasn't able to take a picture with Tiger today.”

That’s because Woods, who is a co-host of the tournament, withdrew Friday because he had the flu.

“Reaching nine wins was one of my big goals, passing KJ Choi. After my eighth win, I've been struggling with my back injury. There were a lot of times where I felt, you know, I was never going to win again. I struggled reaching the top-10, but I'm really happy that I was able to win today.”

Which certainly Cantlay, who played Riviera maybe two dozen times when on the UCLA golf team. It would have been interesting to learn what happened to his game the final 36 holes, but there were no explanations. 

What we needed to know, apparently was on the card.

In a Masters without drama, a green jacket for Matsuyama

The crew in the CBS booth kept hoping, kept pointing out that Xander Schauffele might hole that putt or Will Zalatoris could close the gap. And who could blame them?

They didn’t necessarily want Hideki Matsuyama to stumble in this Masters. They simply wanted some competition, some drama, some reason to watch and listen other than to view another shot of the azaleas — yes, they were in bloom — or hear for the 50th time how nobody from Japan ever had won the tournament.

They wanted someone to be able use the line, “The Masters doesn’t begin until the back nine on Sunday.”

But they didn’t get it. What they did get was an historic win by Matsuyama.

The other players never really made a run, and Matsuyama only stumbled occasionally, holding a lead in the final round that usually was at least two strokes and at times was as much as six.

At the end of the 85th Masters, in which the 29-year-old Matsuyama made history by making off with the famed prize to the champion, the green jacket, the margin of victory was only one. But that was because he bogeyed the 72nd hole, which was all he needed to do.

This was Matsuyama’s Masters since he grabbed the lead Saturday and entered the last round four shots in front. Sure, he had a shaky start, in the last day, a bogey on the first hole, but immediately Matsuyama birdied the second. 

The others were going to have to catch him.  But they could not, even though he shot a 1-over 73 for a 72-hole total of 278, and with bogies three of the last four holes, he became first Masters champ since Trevor Immelman in 2008 with an over-par closing round.

Matsuyama finished at 10-under 278. Zalatoris, who grew up in the Bay Area before moving, had a 70 for 279. Jordan Spieth and the star-crossed Schauffele — he had a double bogey and then at 16, into the pond, a triple — tied at 281.

Immelman, interestingly, was one of the announcers on Sunday for CBS where a main theme as play progressed was the unrelenting pressure on Matsuyama, real or perceived, from the country of Japan, impatient for their first men’s major golf champion.

Yet Matsuyama never flinched.

After his one large error, a ball into the water on the par-5 15th — the hole where a few years ago Tiger Woods also hit one in, and then when an official blew it, was allowed to drop in the wrong place — Matsuyama took only a bogey.

Y.E. Yang of Korea became first Asian man to win a major, holding off Woods in the 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine. That Matsuyama would join him is no surprise.

Ten years ago, he was low amateur in the Masters. When Matsuyama won the 2014 Memorial, Jack Nicklaus’ event at Muirfield, Nicklaus said, “I think you’ve seen the start of one of the world’s best players the next few years. This young man is going to win a lot of golf tournaments.”

He’s won 15 around the world, six on the PGA Tour. He doesn’t speak much English, a translator being used for interviews — although when he walked off the course on Sunday, Matsuyama said in English, “I’m really happy.”

Then he said in Japanese, “Hopefully I’ll be a pioneer in this and many Japanese will follow. I’m glad to be able to open the floodgates so more will follow.”  

Eight days before the Masters, Tsubasa Kajitani of Japan won the Augusta National Women’s amateur. Matsuyama didn’t see that, because he was in the Valero Texas Open. But you can be certain Kajitani saw Matsuyama.

The entire world of golf did.

“I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like,” he said, “but it will be a thrill to take the green jacket back to Japan.

It will be no less a thrill for all the country.

No Tiger, but his news dominates Masters week

There was a story two days ago when the tournament was about to begin that lamented Tiger Woods, the man who wasn’t there, of course. But if Woods is not in the field or on the property, he’s still the biggest golf story of this Masters week.

With the exclusion of Japan, certainly because three rounds into the 2021 Masters the leader, by a good margin, four strokes, is Hideki Matsuyama of Japan.

Matsuyama, coming out of a one-hour-plus storm delay Saturday, played the final eight holes 6 under par and shot a 7-under 65.

And yet by accident — the pun is intentional — the news in the sport belonged to Woods.

It’s all about recognition, about headlines, and for better or worse, over a decade those have been earned by Tiger, both for his achievements — 82 wins, sharing the record with Sam Snead — and difficulties.

It’s always been that way in sport and life.

There are big names, and there are huge names. In New York, on the day Lou Gehrig hit his record 23rd grand slam, Babe Ruth announced his retirement. The Babe got the attention.

So it has been this week with Woods.

After the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department announced it determined the cause of the February 23 car crash, from which according to some, Tiger was lucky to survive, the information had to remain private. There are legal protections.

Then almost inexplicably, Woods gave permission for the information to become public. That it was released the week of the year’s first major golf championship, the event Woods won five times including unexpectedly, and spectacularly, in 2019?

Only Woods and his advisors would know.

Matsuyama on Sunday could very well become the first from Japan to win any major, and wouldn’t that be poetic justice for the anti-Asian violence and comments of late?

Still, except for golf purists, it doesn’t compare with anything involving Woods.

Matsuyama might get the cover of a golf journal; in an earlier time (say, five years ago before the magazine changed), even the cover of Sports Illustrated. Tiger, on course or off, gets everything.

Woods is no mere sporting hero, he’s an A-list celebrity. If only just for one of the most famous single names in the world. People who don’t know an unplayable lie from a politician’s lie know Tiger.

What none of us knows at the moment is why Woods went public with the crash investigation results, but in the end the choice may be beneficial to Woods and as a warning to others.

The determination was that Woods was driving too fast. Way too fast. Something like 85 to 90 mph in a 45 mph zone in a residential area near Los Angeles.

Woods always pushed the limits, wherever and whatever, channeling his late father, Earl, a Green Beret. Tiger skydived, bungee-jumped, went through military training.

Although not quite the same, he took his chances in golf, going for the green instead of laying up. That Tiger would step on the gas would not be unexpected.

Woods’ nature was never to ease up. He won the 2008 US Open at Torrey Pines despite playing with a virtual broken leg that caused him to wince with pain after a swing. He never conceded, to his body or to other competitors.

The Genesis SUV that Tiger was driving hit the center divider and rolled several times. He was critically injured and after first going to a medical facility in southern California is now recovering at home in Florida.

USA Today is covering the Masters, if not quite with the urgency and depth it has covered Tiger — hiring forensic analysts who criticized the conclusions of the L.A. County Sheriff’s report.

Controversy sells, we’re told. But if Matsuyama holds the lead in the Masters, there should be no controversy.

He will have earned the victory that in itself may not make him as famous — or infamous — as Tiger Woods.

But he’ll be a Masters champion, which should be enough.