It is a continent of more than 17 million square miles and four billion souls who are horribly under-accessorized — not a single Masters green jacket to be found anywhere.
Asia still awaits her first winner here. It remains one of the two continents on this globe shut out of the Augusta National champions’ locker room. And the penguins in Antarctica have been slow to develop an overlapping grip.
This year joining the chain of Asian-born players in the Masters dating to “Chick” Chen and “Torchy” Toda in 1936 — are seven more who seek a really big breakthrough. One, Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, has the oddsmakers’ attention, installed at 18-to-1 to win this week, behind only Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy, according to oddsshark.com.
The thought of a Japanese winner at the Masters practically inspires haiku-like sentiment from one backer of the 25-year-old Matsuyama.
"(The Masters) is one of the, if not the, premier event in the world of golf in Japan," said Bob Turner, Matsuyama's American manager and translator. "It comes on early in the morning. Everybody watches it. All of Japan's golf fans, their dream is to visit Augusta and walk around there.
“It’s the first major of the year, springtime, cherry blossom time in Japan. It’s kind of the rites of spring.”
It is not for lack of emotional attachment that no Asian-born player has won here.
Through an interpreter, Korea’s Si Woo Kim, who qualified for his first Masters with his win in last August’s Wyndham Championship, deemed his ticket to Augusta, “a dream come true.”
“It was like when I was a kid, that’s what I was dreaming of — being in Augusta,” he said. “When I knew I was in the tournament, it was really exciting.”
Some familiar and talented players from that corner of the world have made multiple journeys down Magnolia Lane and gone unrewarded. Just a sampling: Korea’s K.J. Choi (12 appearances, two top-five finishes); Japan’s Isao Aoki (14 appearances, four top 25s); Taiwan’s T.C. Chen (four Masters, three top 25s).
The Masters is hardly the only major lacking an Asian champion; just the one most dripping with mystique in that continent. Korea’s Y.E. Yang, winner of the 2009 PGA Championship, is out there all by himself as the sole Asian major winner.
In Matsuyama, the Masters would have a particularly apt signature champion. As the 2010 and ’11 winner of the Asian Amateur and the automatic Masters invite that came with those, he in many ways is a product of this tournament’s stated agenda of growing golf worldwide.
“He holds Augusta National golf club and its members in high esteem,” Turner said. “He has said many, many times that the reason I’m sitting here is because of the Asian amateur and Augusta National Golf Club allowing me an opportunity to play in the Masters as an Amateur. He will always be grateful, and always have a special place in his heart and soul for Augusta National.”
Ranked fourth in the world, higher than any Asian player ever, Matsuyama has been among the hottest golfers in the world recently. He finished fifth in last fall’s Tour Championship and then won globally four times in his next six starts. With a victory in Phoenix this season, he became the winningest Japanese player ever on the PGA Tour (four).
His record at the Masters suggests a growing comfort and familiarity with the landscape — fifth- and seventh-place finishes the past two years. The ball-striking has been consistent enough to win anywhere, but the question with Matsuyama remains: Can he putt well enough to win here (ranking 185th on Tour in strokes gained putting)?
The unique pressures of trying to become “a first” also complicates his quest. When the weight of a country, and to some extent a continent, bears down, that certainly can hinder the backswing. It was only four years ago that Adam Scott became the first Australian to win a Masters, and he memorably released all the pent up nationalistic tension by bellowing “C’mon Aussie!” when the winning putt fell.
“This year I know all of Japan will not only be cheering for him but almost expecting him to play well,” Turner said. “That’s the name of the game, and you try to block everything else out, hit one shot at a time and count ‘em at the end and hopefully it will be good enough.”
Sheer numbers and the laws of probability would lead to the conclusion that Asia certainly would have to someday separate itself from the Antarctic as Masters wastelands. So, like when is it going to happen?
“Not sure about that,” Korea’s Kim said. “There are a lot of Asian players, so pretty soon, I think.”
The impact of that would be felt globally, if not so much right here in the southern US of A.
“I mean, if I was fortunate enough to win a major, I know in Japan, it would be big news. And hopefully it would help promote golf in Japan and it would be a good thing,” said the press-shy Matsuyama earlier this year. “In America, I don’t know. Again, I don’t speak a lot of English, so I don’t know how the rest of the world would react if I did win a major. Hopefully it would be in a good way.”
The prospect of a Masters winner from Matsuyama’s neighborhood is not one that the American golf fan has had to seriously process. It may well be time to start.
