ATLANTA — Walking in the wake of new father Rory McIlroy, whom media members were dying to hear from on Friday, Hideki Matsuyama stepped up to the dais outside the East Lake clubhouse and put his hands on hips, as he’s wont to do. A few questions came from a Japanese TV affiliate. Then Reiko Takekawa of Kyodo News, the lone Japanese print reporter on-site for the Tour Championship this week, asked a few short questions yielding even shorter responses. Then Matsuyama stepped in front of a single American sportswriter who asked about … the lack of sportswriters.
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“It’s a little sad when there’s only a couple of reporters,” Matsuyama said, by way of his interpreter and agent Bob Turner. “But if I play well, then there’s not only the Japanese media, but also the international media and the Americans. I think that’s how it should be, shouldn’t it?”
Indeed, the better one plays, the more media one encounters. Except, in Matsuyama’s case, ever since his back-to-back amateur appearances at the Masters in 2011 and ’12, and his first PGA Tour win at the Memorial in 2013, he has existed in the middle of what has amounted to his own personal press corps. The same way Americans consume Tiger Woods, the Japanese have consumed Matsuyama for the past seven-plus years. Every shot he hits in every tournament is aired live back home, and typically, a pack of 15 or more reporters awaits him at the end of every round.
But the world has changed. The pandemic grounded most of Matsuyama’s media contingent. The only Japanese media presence at the Tour Championship are the cameras of NHK (Japan’s public media organization) and Jupiter Golf Network (a Japanese cable station), along with Takekawa, who has been serving as the pool reporter for the Japanese outlets that haven’t had on-site reporters for the PGA Tour the past three months. Walking along outside the ropes down the fifth fairway on Friday, Takekawa, who lives in Los Angeles, looked around at all the open space and said, “It’s only me. It’s soooo different.”
There’s a void, in more ways than one. Matsuyama’s 2020 season started well in January and February, including a T5 at the Genesis Invitational and a T6 at the WGC-Mexico. Momentum was building. He went to the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in mid-March looking to end an impossibly long winless drought dating to the WGC-Bridgestone in August 2017. He had five career PGA Tour victories, including three wins in 2017. For a player of Matsuyama’s caliber to have gone nearly three years without a win is unimaginable. Then the 28-year-old fired a first-round 9-under 63 at Sawgrass, matching the course record and taking a two-stroke lead.
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“I was thinking, ‘Oh, this might be the year,'” Turner said of Matsuyama, his client since 2013.
Instead, the hope fizzled out right there. The Players Championship was canceled after the first round. Matsuyama’s first-round 63 was suspended in time. He went to his house in Windermere, Fla., packed some things and flew home to Japan to join his wife and child for the next two months. He eventually returned to the U.S., quarantined for 14 days, and prepared for the restart of competition. He didn’t play in the Charles Schwab Challenge in mid-June, instead making his return the following week at the RBC Heritage.
Over the next seven events, Matsuyama produced a stretch that can only be described as quiet, both in his play and his words. He missed two cuts and finished the other five events between 20th and 29th place. A rebound came last week with a tie for third in the BMW Championship, which secured his spot in the Tour Championship. But even that week was a burden. In four days spent grinding around Olympia Fields, he hit only 37 of 72 greens in regulation and scrambled his way through all kinds of up-and-downs and long par putts.
“It’s been a frustrating year, but I’m here at the Tour Championship and that was one of my goals,” Matsuyama said Friday.
As Matsuyama spoke, Turner nodded along, then delivered the quote. It’s one of the dynamics that makes Matsuyama such a curious, thought-provoking figure. Turner notes that his job is that of an interpreter, not a translator. Some things said verbatim from Japanese to English don’t convert cleanly. Turner, a 67-year-old from Seattle, portrays and paraphrases Matsuyama’s answers, as opposed to translating. So, in truth, we don’t know exactly what Matsuyama is thinking.
How fascinating would it be to crawl into that mind. Ever since his first full season on the PGA Tour in 2013, the question has been when, not if, he will win a major, and how many majors would he win. In 2013, he tied for 10th in his first U.S. Open and tied for sixth in his first Open Championship. He finished fifth in the 2015 Masters and T7 at Augusta National the following year. Then T4 in the 2016 PGA Championship and T2 in the 2017 U.S. Open. The 2017 PGA Championship looked like it would finally be his major moment, but after standing as the 36-hole leader, rounds of 73-72 on the weekend left Matsuyama in a tie for fifth as the sun set that Sunday at Quail Hollow. Speaking to that familiar throng of Japanese reporters afterward, Matsuyama tried to work through an answer before losing his words and squatting down to collect himself.
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It was an unexpected show of emotion. Matsuyama is a conscientious objector when it comes to letting the outside in. According to Turner, there have been a few short behind-the-scenes documentary-style pieces done on his training and practice sessions (which are legendarily relentless), but that’s about it. Turner says there has never been a full-scale profile done on him and his life or backstory. When it comes to the members of his ever-present media scrums, he has developed no relationships with reporters over the years. Both Turner and Takekawa used the same words: “Very shy.” When Matsuyama speaks, his hands go on the hips and there’s little to no eye contact.
“He’s not exactly one to prolong an answer,” Turner said. “He’s not going to add anything that isn’t pertinent. Sometimes that means it’s a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or ‘I don’t know.’ His first year on tour was a major challenge, but once he realized that this is the routine, he learned to do it. Really, I’m proud of him. He’s been a total professional.”
Now match this disposition with Matsuyama’s standing in the world. He is a megastar in Japan, appearing on billboards and being a flagship face for a number of high-end sponsorship deals. He’s signed with Srixon for clothing, clubs and ball, and Asics for shoes. He also has deals with Lexus, Rolex, All Nippon Airways, Nomura Holdings financial services, Vantelin athletic creams and Indeed, a Japanese job search engine.
Every December, when most PGA Tour players take a stretch of weeks off to regroup, Matsuyama travels home to Japan and runs a gauntlet of sponsor events and meet-and-greets. It is undoubtedly lucrative, but must also be utterly exhausting. This is on top of what already is a schedule few others could maintain. Matsuyama plays nearly 30 events a year and rarely takes a day off from practice. And what do those practice days look like? Wake up around 7:30 a.m. Work out for two to three hours. Then breakfast. Then head to the golf course. Putt for an hour. Ninety minutes on the driving range. Chip for a half-hour. Play nine holes. Back on the range for an hour. Back to the putting green for another hour. Head home for dinner.
It’s a lot. And Matsuyama does all this while a country watches his every step.
“He handles pressure really well,” Turner said. “I think he’s learned over time not to add any more pressure.”
One wonders, though, if the results aren’t a coincidence. Matsuyama hasn’t finished in the top 15 of a major since that day at Quail Hollow, a stretch of nine outings. His world ranking has fallen from No. 2 to No. 20. His winless streak on the PGA Tour is now at 72 tournaments.
Matsuyama remains a world-class talent, no doubt, but it’s growing more and more curious what’s going on and what might come next. Maybe he’ll make a run over the next three days in Atlanta. It’ll be tough. With the 2020 season (finally) about to come to an end, and the Tour Championship’s staggered scoring in effect, Matsuyama is nine strokes back of leaders Dustin Johnson and Jon Rahm. More than likely, it’ll be three more quiet rounds at East Lake.
As Friday came to a close, Matsuyama was asked how he felt about having someone else have to answer for him. Hearing a translation of the question, he laughed, took his hands off his hips, and began answering. Turner laughed. “I wish my English was better so I wouldn’t have to use Bob and I could speak directly to the media and tell them exactly how I feel,” Matsuyama said, through Turner, “but I didn’t study enough in school and I’m paying the price now.”
Matsuyama turned and left the dais, heading toward a vacant driving range.
(Photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty)
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