Hideki Matsuyama overcame three bogeys on the last four holes of Sunday's round to win this year's Masters Tournament, and in doing so, he also overcame his shyness while celebrating.
During Monday's edition of After Hours with Amy Lawrence, Golf Channel analyst Matt Adams discussed Matsuyama's reserved personality, sharing some background on the first Japanese-born man to win golf's most-prestigious major championship.
"He's very private, which is interesting, because here we are talking about him becoming a superstar in his homeland," Adams said. "He lives in just a really nice but normal neighborhood in Orlando. He and his wife had a baby girl in July of 2017, and it's interesting because he had not won since 2017. And it makes you wonder if it's kind of like a situation that maybe Rory McIlroy's going through, where you become a dad for the first time -- he also had a baby girl with his wife. And you wonder maybe they're smelling the roses a little bit, they want to stay home with the baby, all these things. Those players, when they become a parent, they go in one of two directions -- either they become the uber-competitor, or they're kind of like, 'I'd like to smell the roses here a little bit.'
"So, in some ways, I wonder if this victory is a return to the Hideki Matsuyama who was winning at pretty regular clips through 2016 and 2017 multiple times and he's back to being that guy again. We'll see if that's what happens there. Other interesting things: he likes to play catch and keep loose... He travels with baseball gloves and a ball... He likes to fish, but he says he can't swim, so he does it off the dock. He's an interesting guy in a lot of ways like everybody, but he naturally is a shy guy. And it's, again, interesting in his chosen profession and in this case, [his Masters win is] going to put him on a very, very big stage."
Matsuyama, 29, shot a one-over 73 on Sunday to finish the tournament at 10-under, one stroke ahead of runner-up Will Zalatoris. But the final round wasn't exactly a nail-biter, or as thrilling as the leaderboard suggests. Matsuyama managed to stretch his lead to six shots on the back-nine, an in spite of some poor shots and late bogeys, his victory was never seriously in doubt.
According to the William Hill Sportsbook, Matsuyama entered the tournament with 35-to-1 odds to win the green jacket. And the timing of his victory at Augusta National couldn't have been more fitting, as Sunday marked 10 years since he was awarded the tournament's Silver Cup in the low amateur division.
The entire Masters-Matsuyama conversation between Adams and Lawrence can be accessed in the audio player above.
You can follow After Hours With Amy Lawrence on Twitter @ALawRadio and @AfterHoursCBS, and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.