Cool When It Counted
Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama cruised to a win in the second Asian Amateur Championship, earning a berth in next spring’s Masters
by DAN WASHBURN
Golf Digest, October 10, 2010
KAWAGOE, Japan — Nerves don’t appear to affect 18-year-old Hideki Mastuyama — until he leaves the golf course. The Japanese college freshman, so smiley and carefree with a club in his hands, looked absolutely petrified on the awards podium, even as he gingerly held the Asian Amateur Championship trophy he had just earned in convincing fashion. He didn’t crack a smile until he heard the two words that had been whispered with almost mystical significance over the past several days at Kasumigaseki Country Club in suburban Tokyo: The Masters.
Read the entire story here. I’ll have a longer, more in-depth piece on the Asian Amateur in a future issue of Golf World.