Joy of Golf: Matsuyama’s is Japan’s finest

Joy Chakravarty 10:57 09/02/2017
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  • In fine form: Matsuyama.

    This could well be a Tiger Woods-like season for Hideki Matsuyama. With his play-off win in the Waste Management Phoenix Open on Sunday, the Japanese has won his fifth title in his last nine starts – dating back to the Japan Open in the third week of October.

    That includes multiple wins on the PGA Tour – apart from Phoenix, he has also won the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai – and the tournament hosted by Woods, the Hero World Challenge. He also has two runners-up finishes.

    And while he may not have moved much in the world rankings – up one place to fifth – what he has done is close the gap against the top-four players. With 8.7964 average ranking points, he is now slightly more than 1.15 points behind No1 Jason Day (9.9346). So another victory has the possibility to take him very close to the Australian.

    Everyone seems to be in awe of his ball-striking these last few months, but his close friend on the PGA Tour, India’s Anirban Lahiri, has another take on the Japanese’s success.

    Lahiri pointed out three areas where Matsuyama has worked extremely hard over the past 18 months – his putting (and he pointed out to the long one-handed sessions he has everyday), his diet intake, and most importantly, his fitness level.

    In between all this, Matsuyama is also trying to learn English.

    Is he the greatest ever Japanese golfer? Matsuyama himself will vehemently deny that. In fact, ask any Japanese golfer, and that status belongs to Jumbo Ozaki.

    But Jumbo played most of his career in Japan, and won most of his 110 worldwide titles there. On the other hand, Matsuyama has proven himself all around the world.

    Just looking at his stats – he is one place away from matching Tommy Nakazima, who became the highest ranked Japanese player in the world at No4 and his four PGA Tour wins are the most by any Japanese (he overtook Shigeki Maruyama) – people will soon start changing their opinion.

    Lara’s take on Woods

    One of the things I greatly admired about Brian Lara’s batting was how nimble-footed he was. Spin, or pace, Lara seems to have an answer for anything that was thrown at him, and with plenty of time to spare.

    The former West Indian star, who is a die-hard golfer, has been in the UAE these last couple of weeks. He played the Abu Dhabi Invitational, and the Gary Player Invitational earlier this week.

    I caught up with him at Yas Links, where he revealed his massive excitement at getting to watch Tiger Woods during the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

    So, that was just the cue needed to ask him an awkward question.

    ‘Who did he think was cricket’s version of Tiger?’

    I was betting on Sir Vivian Richards as the answer, but Lara just shuffled across and swatted it with a beauty.

    “Because cricket is a team sport, I will go with a team. I think my choice would be the West Indies cricket team of the 1970s,” he said as if prepared for the question.

    “We have had some great individual performers before that, but Clive Lloyd’s team changed the whole dynamics of the game, just like Tiger did in golf.

    “They made a demography shift like Tiger. It no longer remained a game dominated by England and Australia. And much like him, they won wherever they went. Conditions and pitches did not make a difference.”

    Golf’s most wanted shoes

    The golf version of one of the most iconic basketball shoes – Air Jordan – have been released in the US market. Nike Golf recently unveiled the Air Jordan I Retro High golf shoe, expected to retail at $200.

    The first Air Jordan was released in 1984, the same year Michael Jordan started playing golf. The American is Hobe Sound, Florida.

    Of course, Nike had to make a few changes to ensure that the high-top of the shoe in not a hindrance while playing golf. They have put extra padding in the ankle area, while the outsole is similar to what was part of their TW ‘13 collection.

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