The Uprising of Hideki

The defining moment of Hideki Matsuyama, the standard-bearer for golf in Japan’s young and ascendant career, was winning the 2016 WGC-HSBC Champions

2010 WGC-HSBC Champions winner Francesco Molinari

Molinari will be playing in his seventh HSBC Champions, trying to dethrone Matsuyama who defends his title Oct. 23-29 when the tournament returns to the Sheshan International Golf Club in Shanghai.

The top players in the game will gather in China for one of the most important tournaments of the fall, one that can set the tone for the 2017-18 season - just like it did for Matsuyama. This year, the HSBC Champions will be the third of three Asian events in a row, following the US$7 million CIMB Classic in Malaysia and the first-year US$9.25 million CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES in South Korea.

The HSBC Champions victory was significant in many ways for Matsuyama. In addition to a three-year PGA TOUR exemption, Official World Golf Ranking points and prize money, he became the first player from Japan - the first from Asia, actually - to win a WGC event. It tied Matsuyama with Shigeki Maruyama, one of his boyhood heroes, for most PGA TOUR wins by a Japanese player, a mark that Matsuyama has since broken.

“To win the HSBC was probably my biggest achievement,” Matsuyama said. “I was the first Asian to win that event, and to me, that was a big deal.”

Pages

Written by The Editors

Photography by AFP

Click here to see the published article.

Understanding Comebacks
Rahil Gangjee is a name that may not resonate beyond the golfing fraternity but after his win at the Panasonic Open Golf Championship in Japan, he will be someone to remember for every occasion...
The Golf Scene in St Andrews
Golf in St Andrews is rather a minefield for the uninitiated and particularly concerning playing on the Old Course. I am just about to pay £220 to the Links Trust for my local residents ticket,...
As Real as It Gets
Sports offers the purest of all human emotions, and it’s real as it gets. It’s not fake and does not set out to deceive. I had the privilege of getting up close and personal with many...
Banished to the Castle
Ok I’ll admit it. I have two massive and rather lofty golfing ambitions. One is to become a member of The Royal and Ancient in St Andrews and the other to be sent as a journalist to Augusta to...
Final Shot with Brigadier Christopher Hammerbeck
When did you start playing golf? I started to play golf with a very old set of wooden shafted clubs inherited from my father’s cousin on the Tidworth Golf Course when I was serving with...
Kim's No Kid: Si Woo Kim Continues to Grow
Nostalgia litters the champions’ dining room at TPC Sawgrass, where framed portraits of Si Woo Kim adorn dark wood walls and mementoes of his highest achievement sit proudly atop mantelpieces...
Banking on the Rankings
Over the years golfers come and go, some even come back again for a second shot at stardom, whilst other disappear almost as mysteriously as they originally appeared, which is why greatness in...
The Longest Hole - The Finale
"I suffered for a couple of weeks with pretty bad back spasms and probably the stiffest neck I have ever had… But, there was never one second, we thought we wouldn't make it. Ron was a hero. He...
Joe Public Will Have No Say
With regards to the latter there will, as from 2020, be a single world handicap system based on the US model which averages all the rounds that you play including social ones. I think this is...
Pro Can't Have Their Cake and Eat It
Imagine an English Premier League match between Liverpool and Manchester United, the Old Trafford outfit winning a last-minute penalty in front of an outraged and uproarious Kop. Spot-kick-taker...

Pages