The Open Championship: Player Focus - Hideki Matsuyama

Post by Sports Writer, Derek Clements

TIGER WOODS, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth - if you put together all the publicity they have enjoyed during their careers and multiplied it by five, you might get some idea of the impact that will be made in Asia if a golfer from Japan can ever win a major.

For such a man, superstardom and riches beyond the dreams of Croesus. Oh yes, and the end of ever again being able to walk the streets in his homeland without being mobbed by fans.

Jumbo Ozaki won a host of tournaments in his home land and around Asia and briefly tried his hand on the PGA Tour, but he could never quite cross the divide. Many good judges believed he didn't really want it badly enough.

Isao Aoki won a luxury house when he managed a hole in one during the World Matchplay Championship at Wentworth, and he even enjoyed some success in America. But although he won plenty of respect, he could never win a major.

Then we were told that Ryo Ishikawa was the next big thing, the player from the land of the rising sun who would rise to the top of the world rankings. He even came with wood covers in his own image, all black spikey hair and sunglasses.

Ishikawa has thus far flattered to deceive, but he remains a young man and there is still hope for him - all the more so if Hideki Matsuyama, the latest Japanese wonderboy, proves to be the real deal and takes the pressure from Ishikawa's shoulders.

Matsuyama might be the real thing. In 2010 he won the Asian Amateur Championship when he was just 18, thus qualifying to play in The Masters, the first Japanese amateur to do so. Matsuyama not only made the cut, but was the only amateur to do so. He also finished third in the Japanese Open as an 18-year-old, and the world began to sit up and take notice.

By August 2012 he was the world's top-ranked amateur and, with nothing left to prove, joined the paid ranks in 2013. By the end of his rookie season he had won four times on the Japanese Tour, finished in the top 10 in the US Open, was tied for sixth at The Open, finished in the top 25 in six of the PGA Tour-sanctioned events in which he competed and had entered the top 50 in the world rankings. Maybe this Japanese kid really was going to be different. Maybe Matsuyama really did have what it takes.

Winning in Japan is one thing, and for all the plaudits he picked up for his showing at the 2013 US Open and at The Open, what he really needed to his name was a victory on the PGA Tour. As one of the world's best 50 golfers, he automatically won the right to take up his PGA Tour card. Could he make the most of it?

Judge for yourself. He won the 2014 Memorial  Tournament at Muirfield Village, on one of the most testing courses on the Tour, and he also won the Dunlop Phoenix, his sixth victory on the Japanese Tour, and saw his world ranking climb to 13 - and all before the age of 23.

In April he played in The Masters, won in such brilliant fashion by Jordan Spieth that it is easy to forget that a number of other players in the field also played superbly at Augusta that particular week. As British golf fans, we remember Justin Rose playing out of his boots but coming up short. And right in there once again was Matsuyama, who eventually finished fifth.

So at 23, he has enjoyed top 10 finishes in The Open, US Open and The Masters. And he finished 19th at the US PGA Championship in 2013.

The real deal? You can bet your last yen that he is. Matsuyama has everything, but the best club in his bag is his temperament. No matter what is thrown at him, the Japanese youngster takes it all in his stride. People from that part of the world are often described as inscrutable and it is the perfect word to sum up Matsuyama's approach to the game.

He knows full well that when he wins his first major - and make no mistake that it will happen, and soon - the focus from the media in his homeland could be suffocating for anybody who doesn't have the right mental tools to deal with it. Matsuyama knows this and yet his ambition is to win not one major, but many. And that says a great deal about him.

There is a feeling within the game that, as good as Ishikawa is, he doesn't really fancy that level of scrutiny. As a result, he may never achieve the success that his talent dictates he should.

The mental side is only part of it, of course. Matsuyama is like all of the current crop of fabulous young players in that he works tirelessly on his swing and when he doesn't have a golf club in his hands he is in the gym making sure that his body is in the best shape it could possibly be.

He is not a huge hitter, but he strikes the ball plenty far enough, and he hits more fairways than most. He is also a stellar talent with irons in his hand, but the area in which he truly stands out is the one that counts the most - Hideki Matsuyama possesses a short game to die for. Put him in a greenside bunker and he will come out stone dead. Give him 100 yards to the flag and he will drop the ball within two or three feet, time after time.

Then there is that putting stroke - and THAT is what makes the difference. Anybody who has followed Spieth closely over the past two years will know that he has been so successful because of the extraordinary number of putts he holes. Matsuyama is in the same league.

He enjoys links golf, admitting that he loves the challenge of playing different kinds of shots, whether it be knockdowns, holding the ball into a crosswind or keeping the ball low into the wind. In other words, his game is tailor-made for St Andrews and he will not be blown off course if the wind gets up.

There have been several false dawns for Japanese golf but all the signs are that the sun is finally rising - and that it will be some time before it sets on Matsuyama.