This week, the Sony Open in Hawaii takes place, a tournament that just a year ago was won by Grayson Murray after defeating Keegan Bradley and Byeong Hun An in a playoff. This anniversary also serves as a tribute to the American player, who sadly passed away a few months after this triumph.
As expected, all eyes will be on Hideki Matsuyama, whose victory a few days ago in Kapalua at The Sentry has not changed his plans: he is playing this week at the Waialae Country Club in Honolulu, as planned, and will try to achieve the Hawaiian double, as Ernie Els and Justin Thomas did in their time.
The first question to ask, almost jokingly, is whether Hideki will play on the greens of the legendary Waialae with the same putter as last week. It is reasonable to think he will, as it served him well, but it’s better not to bet on it, because the Japanese player is full of surprises in this regard.
And from one Matsuyama, Hideki, the best Japanese player in history, we move to another, Mao Matsuyama, who aspires to follow in his footsteps. Mao is a very young Japanese amateur making his debut this week on the PGA Tour thanks to a sponsor’s invitation. He is only 16 years old, and his best position in the world amateur ranking has been 158 (currently 194), but he has already made enough noise to attract attention: last June, he became the youngest player in history to win the Japan Amateur Championship, at 15 years and 344 days, comfortably surpassing the previous record held by Takumi Kanaya, who won it in 2015 at 17 years and 51 days. A week earlier, he also won the individual competition at the Toyota Junior World Cup.
Such a breakthrough in Japanese golf earned him some invitations to professional tournaments on the Japan Tour in 2024, where, for example, he played the prestigious Dunlop Phoenix Tournament a month and a half ago, making the cut (finishing in 58th place) and also coinciding with Hideki, who finished in second place.
He has just appeared and has the whole journey ahead of him. Hideki, for example, became the Number One in the world amateur ranking at twenty years old. He also played as an amateur at the Masters Tournament at Augusta at just 18, finishing in 27th place… That is truly remarkable. Hideki is the shining star in the East, and Mao, in any case, is just another reflection of the rising evolution of Japanese men’s golf in recent years. Let’s see what historical page he can write this week in Honolulu, although simply making the cut at his age in a PGA Tour tournament would already be quite an achievement…
