Tiger Woods finds success with familiar equipment setup

Rex Kuramoto couldn’t sit still. So he did the only thing he could think to do in order to help calm his nerves. He grabbed his putter and a began to pace. “I was just so excited,” said the longtime golf commentator and former European Tour player. “I could not sit in a chair and watch the TV. I just walked around my living room for no reason, holding my putter and doing nothing but praying.” Praying, of course, for history. History decades in the making for Kuramoto and his fellow Japanese golf brethren, who for years dreamed that one of their own would someday hoist a major men’s championship. So as Hideki Matsuyama closed in on the first Masters victory by an Asian player on a Sunday afternoon at Augusta National, Kuramoto and his peers stood by with baited breath. “I was trying not to blink, just pinching my cheeks and trying to enjoy every moment,” added Naoyuki Komatsu, who calls golf broadcasts alongside Kuramoto for GOLFTV Powered by the PGA TOUR in Japan. “I’m old enough to think of all those old players who came through Augusta over the years,” he continued. “It felt like all of their challenges in past years, all of their efforts, were all just sitting there, piled up in layers. It really felt like Hideki’s victory was an accumulation of all that.” It may take years to accurately gauge just what type of impact Matsuyama’s achievement will have on Japan, both from an economic and participation standpoint. But if the immediate reaction back home is any indication, the sport’s brightest days still lie ahead. Japanese broadcasters sent messages to TVs throughout the country alerting citizens to the victory. Morning shows continued to discuss the triumph days later. And according to Kuramoto, his friends in the Japan offices of Srixon—Matsuyama’s primary equipment provider—came in early to watch the final round, while Matsuyama’s local high school excused students from the classroom to watch the tournament together. “The Prime Minister, the former Prime Minister, movie stars, athletes, everybody is exulting,” Komatsu said. “They’re telling him, ‘Thank you.’ I guess that’s a Japanese mentality. We’re very grateful of him winning because we hope, we cheer on, we pray. And we know that puts a tremendous amount of pressure on him. “General sports fans are happy, because we have Naomi Osaka winning Grand Slams in tennis, Shohei Otani pitching and hitting home runs, and now Hideki. We hope he can become the next Ichiro Suzuki, who had such longevity in professional baseball.” It should be noted that is not be the first boon for Japanese golf, nor is it likely to be the last. The country’s first big introduction to the sport came in 1957, when a scrawny, 5-foot-2 golfer named Torakichi Nakamura shocked the world by defeating the legendary Sam Snead before going on to win the Canada Cup (known today as the World Cup) at Kasumigaseki Country Club, now the site of the golf competition for the 2021 Olympic Games. Nakamura would become the first Japanese player to compete in the Masters the following year, in turn helping pave the way for a generation of future stars, including PGA TOUR winners such as Shigeki Maruyama, Isao Aoki and World Golf Hall of Famer Jumbo Ozaki. “There are so many more players who had potential, but unfortunately, they hesitated because Japan is so Far East,” Komatsu said. “The Pacific Ocean is so vast. They couldn’t just come to the United States, live here and try it out throughout the year. But now as golf grows globally, the top players have been increasing in Japan.” Consider it the male version of the “Ai Miyazato Effect,” as Kuramoto likes to call it. Many of the female Japanese stars of today credit Miyazato’s rapid ascension to World No. 1—as well as her first professional win while still in high school—for their own path into professional golf. And now? The Japanese youth have even more golf idols to admire. Hinako Shibuno became the second Japanese player to win a women’s major championship in 2019 at the AIG Women’s British Open, and earlier this month 17-year-old Tsubasa Kajitani won on the very same course as Matsuyama, capturing the Augusta National Women’s Amateur in a playoff over Emilia Migliaccio. What comes next from this golf-mad country is anyone’s guess. (Though Komatsu thinks Japan may see an influx of young boys named Hideki, not unlike the Taega name that popped up following Tiger Woods’ 1997 Masters victory.) “The PGA of Japan has been working very hard to introduce this game to youngsters, and they’ve started their own version of the First Tee system,” Kuramoto said. “As Matsuyama said in Butler Cabin: I hope young kids watching him now will grow up and compete against him one day. “We need to tell our young stars how Matsuyama became who he is. It did not happen overnight, but through a lot of dedication.” To be clear, Matsuyama isn’t one to one to dive into such significant detail on his personal struggles. Or any other aspect of his life, for that matter. He undergoes great pains to avoid the media attention he constantly receives, regardless of the cadre of Japanese reporters who follow him from one tournament stop to the next. But no words were necessary at the Masters Tournament, where Dustin Johnson slipped the Green Jacket over Matsuyama’s shoulders. Years of reservation melted away in mere seconds, as the 29-year-old raised his hands to the sky in elation. That moment, above all else, said it all. “He’s always hid his emotions so well before,” Kuramoto said. “I loved seeing him smiling like a baby in front of everybody on the golf course.” It was one of two moments that stood out to the GOLFTV Powered by the PGA TOUR commentators, the other being the viral moment of caddie Shouta Hayafuji bowing in respect at the 18th green. Not only did it capture their own hearts, but those of American golf fans, too. And it came at a critical juncture for the United States, where hate crimes against Asians have been on the rise. “We’re so glad that people not just in America, but all over the world think it’s cool what we care for, what we cherish and what we value,” Komatsu said. “The Masters is the most ‘American’ tournament of them all. It’s symbolic of America, but we Japanese love the Masters.” Hayafuji’s bow “reminded us what and how we should be,” Kuramoto added. “I hope the performance by Hideki and his caddie will help lower the wall between different races.” Consider it just one more achievement for Matsuyama, and for the people of Japan. “An entire nation has realized how sports can impact our life and our spirits,” Kuramoto said. “This will have nothing but a positive effect on Japanese golf.” Watch every moment of Hideki Matsuyama in Japan on GOLFTV Powered by the PGA TOUR.

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The 10th of 24 contributing events for PGA TOUR Champions One & Done presented by SERVPRO is this week’s Regions Tradition. It’s the first of five majors, all of which are contested over 72 holes and begin on Thursdays. Scroll for tournament notes, 22 notables and four wild cards from the field of 78 in Birmingham, Alabama. No matter what you think you know, you don’t, you know? With proper and deserved respect to open qualifier Ryan Baca and North Texas PGA Section representative Brian Norman, neither are likely to generate enthusiasm for even two-man gamers at the AT&T Byron Nelson. See, they are the only two in the field of 156 with competitive course experience at Trinity Forest Golf Club in Dallas. At the 2017 Texas State Open, Baca placed T10 and Norman finished T53. The 47th edition of the esteemed competition also included recognizable names like former PGA TOUR members Edward Loar (T15), Hunter Haas and Craig Kanada – the latter two of whom withdrew mid-tournament — among a handful of other blasts from the past for the truly hardcore (e.g. Brady Watt, Stuart Deane and “Mr. 57” Curtis Reed). Certainly, our own Sean Martin could have penned a Power Rankings for that event and made me blush. The moral of this story is that none of those guys are One & Done-worthy, but they’re the golfers with the muscle memory and some idea of where to miss on the collaboration by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. At the head of the class among short-listers in PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done presented by SERVPRO are locals Jordan Spieth and Beau Hossler, but only Hossler demands serious consideration. Sorry, Sean, but the massive unknown favors the field. Your advised strategy is to review how you’d arrange available golfers on your board for later stops. It’s the essence at the core of the existence of Future Possibilities below. However, you still need to leave yourself with a chip for the AT&T Byron Nelson. I’ve already burned Marc Leishman, but he’d be the most logical at Trinity Forest. Aside from his reputation in the wind, he’s proven comfortable and confident on links-style tracks. And with four top 10s in 2018 alone, he presents no reason to wait. Jimmy Walker is back on the rise and doesn’t line up exceptionally strong the rest of the way. The Texan is the epitome of striking while the irons are hot and while we’re essentially in the dark. Form over everything else, gang. Like Walker, Adam Scott is the kind of chalk to which we can turn just to sleep better. A top 20 would be a net-positive as the Aussie continues to grind through relative adversity. He could emerge as a candidate again later, but the blank canvas of this week serves as a sensible time to circle him now. Billy Horschel is the defending champion on a different course. His recent uptick after finding magic with a familiar putter furnishes all the confidence we need to latch on, but his record at the FedEx St. Jude Classic is phenomenal and should be embraced. Holster. Because I view Matt Kuchar as a wild card who fits in almost everywhere but often doesn’t win tiebreakers, he’s my pick. As I wrote in the Power Rankings, he placed second at the 2017 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, which Jordan Spieth used as a comp to Trinity Forest. Sold. Martin Laird and Branden Grace are seriously tempting. Laird is a beast at the Barracuda Championship contested the same week as the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational where fellow Barracuda go-to’s Gary Woodland and Brendan Steele will be competing. Grace makes more sense at Trinity Forest and easily could have slotted higher than No. 11 in my Power Rankings. Since two-man gamers won’t be flipping a coin between Baca and Norman, saddle Hossler into the back seat. FUTURE POSSIBILITIES NOTE: Select golfers committed to the tournament are listed alphabetically. Future tournaments are sorted chronologically and reflect previous success on the courses on which the tournaments will be held in 2017-18. The numerical values in parentheses represent the order of relative confidence of where to use each golfer if multiple sites are listed (e.g. 1 for strongest, 2 for next-strongest and so on). To present weighted confidence in real time, numerical values will not change all season no matter how many tournament remain listed for each golfer. All are pending golfer commitment. Sergio Garcia … Open Championship (1); TOUR Championship (4) Branden Grace … U.S. Open (4); WGC-Bridgestone (3) Bill Haas … Wyndham (2) J.B. Holmes … Greenbrier (5) Billy Horschel … St. Jude (1); TOUR Championship (4) Russell Knox … Dell Technologies (7) Matt Kuchar … Fort Worth (6); Memorial (2); Canadian (3); WGC-Bridgestone (7); THE NORTHERN TRUST (9) Martin Laird … Barracuda (1) Marc Leishman … Fort Worth (7); Memorial (5); Travelers (2); Open Championship (1) Hideki Matsuyama … Memorial (10); U.S. Open (6); WGC-Bridgestone (8; defending) Graeme McDowell … WGC-Bridgestone (3) Kevin Na … Memorial (10); John Deere (9); Wyndham (3); THE NORTHERN TRUST (11) Ryan Palmer … Fort Worth (2); St. Jude (6) Scott Piercy … John Deere (6) Adam Scott … U.S. Open (10); Open Championship (8); WGC-Bridgestone (3); Dell Technologies (9); TOUR Championship (6) Brandt Snedeker … Fort Worth (11); U.S. Open (5); Travelers (6); Canadian (3); Wyndham (4) Jordan Spieth … Fort Worth (2); Travelers (6; defending); John Deere (7); Open Championship (9; defending); WGC-Bridgestone (10); TOUR Championship (4) Jimmy Walker … Greenbrier (8); Dell Technologies (7) CHAMPIONS ONE & DONE Regions Tradition Greystone Golf & Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama, hosts for the third consecutive year. It’s an unusual par 72 in that there are five par 3s and five par 5s. It’ll tip at 7,277 yards. Like all majors on the PGA TOUR Champions, it begins on Thursday. However, it’s one of only two majors (Constellation SENIOR PLAYERS Championship) for which there is no cut. Bernhard Langer is the two-time defending champion. He’s also the PGA TOUR Champions’ most recent winner at the Insperity Invitational, which came on the heels of consecutive playoff losses in the previous two tournaments. As a result, the 60-year-old sits atop the Schwab Cup money list. Total prize money for the Regions Tradition is $2.4 million. The champion will pocket $360,000. This is the most lucrative event of the season thus far. It’s fourth-most overall behind the U.S. Senior Open Championship ($4 million), the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship (estimated $2.8-$3.0 million) and Constellation SENIOR PLAYERS Championship ($2.8 million). FUTURE POSSIBILITIES NOTE: Select golfers committed to the tournament are listed alphabetically. Future tournaments are sorted chronologically and reflect previous success on the courses on which the tournaments will be held in 2018. The numerical values in parentheses represent the order of relative confidence of where to use each golfer if multiple sites are listed (e.g. 1 for strongest, 2 for next-strongest and so on). To present weighted confidence in real time, numerical values will not change all season no matter how many tournament remain listed for each golfer. All are pending golfer commitment. Stephen Ames … Principal (8); U.S. Senior Open (6); Boeing (2); Shaw (7) Joe Durant … Principal (2); American Family (8); U.S. Senior Open (7); SENIOR PLAYERS (1); 3M (6); DICK’S (12); Boeing (10); Shaw (11); PURE (3); SAS (13) David Frost … U.S. Senior Open (4); 3M (7); Boeing (5); Shaw (8); PURE (1) Fred Funk … Regions Tradition (3); Boeing (6); PURE (5) Doug Garwood … SAS (1) Paul Goydos … 3M (1; defending); DICK’S (3); SAS (5) Lee Janzen … U.S. Senior Open (2) Miguel Angel Jiménez … Senior PGA (6); Principal (10); U.S. Senior Open (5); SENIOR PLAYERS (3); Senior Open Championship (4); 3M (9); Shaw (7); SAS (12) Brandt Jobe … Senior PGA (2); Principal (3; defending); U.S. Senior Open (4); SENIOR PLAYERS (1); 3M (5); Boeing (8) Jerry Kelly … Boeing (1; defending); Shaw (5); PURE (2); SAS (4) Bernhard Langer … Usable everywhere. Defending five titles. Tom Lehman … Regions Tradition (5); Principal (1); U.S. Senior Open (3); SAS (9) Jeff Maggert … American Family (3); Shaw (5) Scott McCarron … Regions Tradition (2); Senior PGA (11); Principal (1); SENIOR PLAYERS (3; defending); Senior Open Championship (10); DICK’S (4; defending); Shaw (5; defending); PURE (8) Colin Montgomerie … Senior PGA (1); U.S. Senior Open (6); SENIOR PLAYERS (2); Senior Open Championship (10); Shaw (4); PURE (7); SAS (3; defending) Tom Pernice, Jr. … Principal Charity (2); Shaw (3); SAS (5) Kenny Perry … Regions Tradition (5); Senior PGA (6); 3M (1); DICK’S (10); SAS (2) Gene Sauers … Regions Tradition (3); U.S. Senior Open (5); SENIOR PLAYERS (6); Boeing (1) Vijay Singh … Senior PGA (3); U.S. Senior Open (2); Shaw (5); SAS (1) Kevin Sutherland … Usable everywhere. David Toms … Regions Tradition (3); Boeing (2); SAS (4) Duffy Waldorf … Principal (6); Shaw (5) WILD CARDS (short list of golfers not included above but on the rise or still building portfolios after recently turning 50): Bob Estes; Steve Flesch; Scott Parel; Steve Stricker

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Webb Simpson was on the verge of shattering the course record at The Players Championship on Friday until he hit into the water on the par-3 17th. He settled for a record-tying 9-under 63 and will take a five-shot lead into the weekend.

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