If Isao Aoki were around, he’d have the right to smile and ask, “Is that all you got?”
But anyone else now must bow to Hideki Matsuyama, and marvel at that magnificent 276-yard second shot on the first playoff hole Sunday at Waialae Country Club.
It set him up three feet from the hole on the par-5. When Russell Henley followed by over-shooting the green moments later, Matsuyama was all but assured of victory. The 2021 Masters champion’s short putt was true, capping a comeback from a five-shot deficit at the turn.
“Russell was playing so beautifully the front nine,” Matsuyama said through an interpreter, “But at the turn I was thinking, He can’t keep this up, can he? I was able to birdie 10 and then a two-shot swing at 11 and then the game was on again.”
Matsuyama had started the final round two strokes behind Henley, the 2013 winner here in his PGA Tour debut who looked for much of the weekend like he’d do it again.
Since Henley shot his back nine at 1-over, he did, indeed, open the door. But Matsuyama blasted through it, the only hiccup a missed birdie putt on 16 that would’ve tied it there.
Instead, he waited for full dramatic effect at No. 18, leaving a long eagle putt that would’ve won it outright about 18 inches short. Meanwhile, Henley barely missed a 10-foot knee-knocker that would’ve won it.
After their tap-ins it was back to the tee on the same hole for the playoff, the second in three years here.
There have been plenty of dramatic shots at this tournament over the decades, but none of the others come close to Aoki’s in 1983.
Aoki needed a birdie on 18 to force a playoff with Jack Renner. But he holed out from 128 yards and won it outright.
If anything could make it better, how’s this? Vin Scully was on the call.
That shot, plus 51 (!) wins on the Japan Golf Tour and second-place at the 1980 U.S. Open and T4 at the ’81 PGA Championship cemented Aoki’s spot in the World Golf Hall of Fame.
It also made him the first Japanese player to win on the PGA Tour.
Now, Matsuyama is the first player from Japan to win at The Masters, and the first from his country to capture this event since Aoki’s miracle shot.
(David Ishii, who is from Kauai, and is of Japanese ancestry and starred on the Japan Tour, won in 1990.)
The PGA has a video of Top Ten shots from this tournament … and yes, Aoki in ’83 is of course No. 1. Every time I see it I feel sorry for Renner, but then I remember that he came back to win it the next year.
Before we go further down this cart path, we should acknowledge that in recent years there has been much more thorough coverage of every single shot on the Tour, and old-timers who watch the video will likely remember seeing more fantastic, dramatic shots than some of those documented.
(I don’t know if it would count as a “shot,” but my favorite has always been when after an errant drive Craig Stadler took a whack at one of those gold spray-painted pineapples they used to have at the tee boxes. That’s when those of us who didn’t know learned they were real pineapples.)
Jordan Spieth, Gary Woodland, Justin Thomas, Ryan Palmer, Steve Marino, Tony Finau (twice), Chez Revie and James Hahn are all represented, from Nos. 10 to 2.
There are aces, double-eagles, a 90-footer by Spieth, and a 15-footer to close out a round of 59 (Thomas in 2017, on his way to the lowest stroke count for a PGA Tour tournament).
Henley’s eagle at No. 9 on Sunday put him at 24-under, and at that time he had a chance to reclaim the tournament record Thomas took from him, or at least tie him.
But hole No. 11 had different ideas, with Henley coming out of it with a bogey, as did Matsuyama about who would end up hoisting the trophy.
If not for that tremendous 3-wood, who knows? It gets dark fast at Waialae, and they might still be out there this morning.
“To be honest I didn’t even see it,” Matsuyama said. “But everybody started cheering and I knew it was good.”
Considering it won him the tournament, the huge gallery on hand, and the link to another great Japanese golfer who is at No. 1, I’m pretty sure the next time I look at that video Matsuyama will be right behind Aoki at No. 2.