AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Hideki Matsuyama almost turned down his first chance to play the Masters. It was a month after a devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, disasters that killed thousands and destroyed much of the region he called home in March 2011.
He decided to play a month later, only because he thought it would lift spirits.
A decade later, he lifted his country again — becoming Japan’s first man to win a golf major. Matsuyama’s one-shot victory over Will Zalatoris at Augusta National made him the Masters champion, easily the biggest moment for the sport in his golf-crazed homeland.
“I can’t say I’m the greatest,” Matsuyama said. “However, I’m the first to win a major, and if that’s the bar, then I’ve set it.”
He was the greatest this week at the Ma
