Hideki Matsuyama, from the Fukushima tragedy to being the first Japanese champion of the Augusta Masters

04/11/2021 20:05

• Clarín.com

• sports

Updated 04/11/2021 20:15

The Japanese Hideki Matsuyama

made history

this Sunday by becoming champion of the Augusta Masters, the most iconic of the Majors of the PGA golf circuit.

At 29, he became

the first man from his country

to win a tournament of this kind.

The Asian golfer will don the classic

green jacket

in what turned out to be his tenth participation and in a contest in which his compatriots have been participating,

without achieving such success, since 1936.

Matsuyama completed the last round with one more hit than the court pair (73) but accumulated in the four rounds 

10 impacts under par

, one less than the young American

Will Zalatoris (24 years old)

, who was looking to become the

first rookie

in winning the tournament since

Fuzzy Zoeller

in 1979.

And he suffered a little: he

was inches from the last hole and it seemed that he would finish it without major problems,

but his putt

slightly

deviated

and he had to solve it with one more stroke.

Of course, there he was able to seal the victory without inconvenience: he had secured the victory before and was

able to resist that little shock.

Masterful Matsuyama.

Hideki is the 2021 Masters champion.

pic.twitter.com/JilGnKF5ga

- PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 11, 2021

Matsuyama, who had started the Sunday

session

four strokes ahead of

Xander Schauffele

, Justin Rose,

Marc Leishman and Zalatoris

,

did not jump

to get the green jacket

and win

his first Major.

Until this conquest, he had won

five

PGA Tour

titles

.

A curiosity: he had

not won since 2017

.

That did not save him from being one of the biggest celebrities in the Asian country with millions of fans who follow him and even harass him when he goes out on the streets.

The son of a former professional golfer, Matsuyama

is one of thousands of victims

of the earthquake and tsunami that caused the Fukushima tragedy.

In that 2011 he was in Australia, but when he returned to his country he found his house destroyed.