Thursday, April 15, 2021

Hideki Matsuyama: First Japanese to Win The Masters




HIDEKI MATSUYAMA


FIRST JAPANESE MAN TO WIN THE MASTERS




Hideki Matsuyama is the pride of the Land of the Rising Sun as he is the first Japanese man to win a major golf tournament. 



Hideki's journey that led to victory last Sunday started a decade ago with his first appearance at the Masters in 2011 after an earthquake struck his home in Sendai, Japan. He recalled walking off the 18th hole when veteran pro golfer Steve Stricker complimented his game. 

 "That's a memory I'll cherish," he said. "Because of that round, it gave me the confidence that I could play here. I could play professional golf as a career."




Since that day he has celebrated numerous victories on the PGA Tour and Japan Golf Tour. By tying for second at the 2017 U.S. Open, he moved to No. 2 in the world rankings, the highest place achieved by a male Japanese golfer, making history with a Rolex on his wrist.








Hideki, 29, is seen wearing his trusty Rolex Submariner two-tone with blue bezel. He is sitting next to the 2020 winner of the Masters, Dustin Johnson (Hublot on his wrist). I can't tell if Hideki has upgraded to the new Submariner reference 126613, shown below, which is 41mm, but I have a feeling he is wearing the Submariner that has accompanied him throughout his career victories.




We often take for granted that it's a Rolex-wearing player who wins the Masters, the likes of Woods and Spieth winning in recent years or "The Big Three": Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer. 



But Dustin Johnson won the Masters wearing a Hublot in 2020, as did Patrick Reed in 2018. And an Omega-wielding Sergio Garcia won in 2017, while Audemars Piguet was on Danny Willett's wrist in 2016. But thanks to Hideki, Rolex is back on top—and worn with a green jacket.









Before Hideki's win, Tiger Woods was the most recent winner of the Masters wearing a Rolex. He won in 2019.




When Tiger Woods won in 2019, it was his 81st Career PGA Tour Win (2nd Most of All-time). Woods had broken the record for most year between Masters' wins at 14 years in-between!








Tiger wore his Rolex DEEPSEA SEA-DWELLER D-Blue after he won the Masters Tournament in 2019, as we see on his wrist in the videos above. 




The D-Blue SEA-DWELLER features an unusual horizontal gradient to faces from blue above to black below, and it also has the DEEPSEA dial designation in a large green font. It is kind of profound if you think about it that the only two brands that didn't abandon Tiger after the challenges he went through years ago were Rolex and Nike.