Defending Memorial champ Hideki Matsuyama has hunger to be winner

 

Hideki Matsuyama likely would have preferred answering questions while hanging out at one of his three favorite spots on earth: tee, fairway and green.

 

Extracting the 23-year-old Japanese player from a manicured golf course is only slightly less difficult than getting him to admit he is one of the top young talents in the game.

 

Ask him what he enjoys most about being on the PGA Tour, and the answer always comes back the same.

 

"Getting to play golf every day," he said.

 

Not the paycheck. Not the lavish lifestyle. The golf itself.

 

Hobbies? Not really. The defending Memorial Tournament champion enjoys baseball and likes to play catch, but he is happiest with a golf club in his hands.

 

Second-best? Possibly gripping silverware, which is why it was appropriate that Matsuyama plopped into a dining room chair last month at The Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., to talk about life, golf and what a young, single budding star does when he isn't putting and chipping.

 

Matsuyama enjoys eating, and if there is one thing the United States is good at, it is serving up mountain ranges of food.

 

As Matsuyama's fellow countryman and friend, Ryo Ishikawa put it, "He used to be much skinnier, when he was like 19-20. This whole year, he's been getting bigger and bigger. His body fits the USA. I think he likes America."

 

It's not that Matsuyama is overweight. Far from it. He just likes a greasy burger from time to time.

 

"I do enjoy American food," Matsuyama said through translator Bob Turner, who accompanies the player to tournaments because English remains a work in progress. "But I also am grateful there are a lot of good Japanese restaurants in America."

 

Matsuyama also has a huge appetite to win tournaments. So far, the Memorial remains his lone victory on tour – he defeated Kevin Na on the first playoff hole at Muirfield Village Golf Club last June – but the ingredients and desire are there to build a successful career.

 

How successful? Matsuyama was the first rookie to win the Japan Golf Tour money list, played in the Masters twice as an amateur, making the cut both times, and has finished inside the top 20 in four of the eight majors he has played since turning pro in 2013, including three top-10 finishes.

 

In winning the Memorial, Matsuyama became just the fourth Japanese winner in tour history, joining Shigeki Maruyama, Isao Aoki and Ryuji Imada.

 

Memorial founder Jack Nicklaus praised Matsuyama after last year's victory, when he became the first player to win in his first Memorial start since Roger Maltbie in the inaugural event in 1976.

 

"This young man is going to win a lot of golf tournaments," Nicklaus said.

 

And not just because Matsuyama is among the best ball-strikers on tour, despite an unorthodox swing that includes a protracted pause at the top.

 

Adam Scott, who took the tour rookie under his wing during the 2013 Presidents Cup at Muirfield Village, marvels at Matsuyama's mindset.

 

"His focus is as good as I've seen from a player since Tiger Woods came out," Scott said. "I think his mental strength is his biggest asset, and if his game improves, he could be Japan's best-ever player, for sure."

 

Matsuyama deflects such plaudits. He appreciates being compared to younger players such as Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler, but is not ready to put himself in that category.

 

"I'm flattered that I'm mentioned with those great young players, and maybe my world ranking (No. 14) shows that I am in that group," he said. "But personally, those guys are way beyond me, and their level of skill and technique is beyond my game right now."

 

And English is beyond his grasp at the moment. He counts learning to speak it as one of many transitions he is trying to make. Another is relocating from Japan to Orlando, Fla.

 

"I'm still at probably a 3 or 4 (out of 10) as far as adjustment, but winning the Memorial last year has helped me immensely," he said. "The biggest change in my life this last year has been an increase in self-confidence, in my game and in knowing I can win. And also, I have felt others maybe look at me differently now, too."

 

He knows respect from peers would increase with a victory in a major, and that his reach would extend beyond these shores.

 

"If I were fortunate to win a major, the Japan golf world would change," he said, adding that golf ranks behind baseball and soccer in popularity in Japan. "The effect on golf in Japan hopefully would be in a good way. Hopefully, young golfers would watch golf on television and have for one of their goals not to win one major, but two majors and to go beyond."

 

This article was written by Rob Oller from The Columbus Dispatch and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.