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Speaker 1: episode is with the PGA Tour's senior editor, Sean Martin.
Speaker 1: Sean is a He was on the grounds at the
Speaker 1: Masters and has devoted more coverage to Hideki Matsiyama than
Speaker 1: any other American journalist that I know of, So I
Speaker 1: thought he'd be a perfect guest to come on and
Speaker 1: break down Hideki's win and just Hideki in general, a
Speaker 1: you know, superstar in the sport that I don't think
Speaker 1: anybody knows a ton about. But Sean knows about as
Speaker 1: much as anybody about Hitdeki. So we break down the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one Masters, and there it's winner, Hideki Matsiyama
Speaker 1: in great detail, And thank you so much for Sean,
Speaker 1: uh for coming on, And without further ado, here is
Speaker 1: the episode.
Speaker 2: I missed a green. For example, I'm already upset when
Speaker 2: I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.
Speaker 2: And when I find my ball in a bright egg
Speaker 2: Frida egg, the dreaded Frida egg Frida egg Frida egg
Speaker 2: egg Frida egg bride egg Lie, I'm about ready to
Speaker 2: run off with the.
Speaker 3: Hup sean recent new father.
Speaker 4: Was this your first uh start since uh since Paterni
Speaker 4: leave back at at the Masters.
Speaker 2: It was. I came back and worked match play week
Speaker 2: because you know, that's just a grind, the traffic on
Speaker 2: the match recaps, people love those. I want to help
Speaker 2: out with that with ninety six matches in three days.
Speaker 2: Not to get into a format discussion, which I know
Speaker 2: you want to, but that was my first That was
Speaker 2: my first event on the road since the Houston Open,
Speaker 2: oh no, sorry, since the RSM Classics. So yeah, so
Speaker 2: what a jump, just big events in Georgia.
Speaker 3: Thrown right into the Wolves.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it had to be like a surreally different experience
Speaker 4: with such limited fans, Like it had to be so
Speaker 4: easy to go around, so easy to see stuff. Obviously
Speaker 4: one of the one of the few places that media
Speaker 4: is not allowed inside the ropes is the Masters.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was still very different. You know, there were
Speaker 2: still no grand stands, which it took me a little bit.
Speaker 2: I was walking around on Monday, I was like, man,
Speaker 2: this feels different still, and I can't fire out why.
Speaker 2: And then I got to the middle of that fairway
Speaker 2: on fifteen about eighty yards out whe everyone stops and
Speaker 2: takes a photo and I realized I could see the
Speaker 2: sixteenth Green, and I was like, oh yeah, there's no
Speaker 2: grand stands. He saw those clear sight lines. Was really cool.
Speaker 2: When Kyle and I were walking the back nine, you know,
Speaker 2: you still could see things easily. You know, we were
Speaker 2: next to the fifteenth green when Hedeki and Xander were there.
Speaker 2: We walked over to sixteen t still could see everything.
Speaker 2: So it definitely still is very different than like your
Speaker 2: typical masters, but it wasn't. I mean the thing that
Speaker 2: November is going to be. I mean that's once in
Speaker 2: a lifetime that one's going to stand alone.
Speaker 4: Different experience being on the grounds. Obviously, a historic win,
Speaker 4: one that has to make you smile, had to make you,
Speaker 4: you know, grin in from ear to ear.
Speaker 3: You're one of the.
Speaker 4: Biggest Hideki appreciators fans on the planet, especially in this
Speaker 4: part of the world, and you know, different masters, But
Speaker 4: what were your overarching thoughts on Hideki's win. Obviously you
Speaker 4: penned a wonderful profile piece on his win on Hideki
Speaker 4: on PGA tour dot com that would urge all the
Speaker 4: listeners to go read Yes, So I.
Speaker 2: Think the word fan makes me a little bit uncomfortable.
Speaker 2: And it's funny because people react as if like this
Speaker 2: was life changing for me, Like am I going to
Speaker 2: get one percent of the earning? You know, It's not
Speaker 2: like I'm earning money off. There's something that like the
Speaker 2: end of the day, you know, it was great to see.
Speaker 2: I like to consider myself a Hideki Matsiyama appreciator, probably
Speaker 2: the largest deck appreciator of the American media. So fan
Speaker 2: always makes you a lol uncomfortable. It's a I think
Speaker 2: we'll get into it, but it's really a bit that
Speaker 2: kind of started ten years ago, and I think now
Speaker 2: that it's been going for like ten years, it's kind
Speaker 2: of probably melded with reality. It's hard to tell where
Speaker 2: what's a joke and what's not. And so yeah, but
Speaker 2: I mean, I you know, there's no cell phones with Augustin
Speaker 2: National obviously, so I'd go out on the course and
Speaker 2: watched nine holes. I'd come back to like fifty text messages.
Speaker 2: I mean, it was I've never I can say, without
Speaker 2: a doubt, I've never received so many text messages in
Speaker 2: a day from Saturday to Sunday. That was wild. I
Speaker 2: you know, like guys say after they win the tournament.
Speaker 2: You know, I have not responded to everyone yet, and
Speaker 2: I've apologize if I haven't been trying to get back
Speaker 2: to everyone at once. But it was a little bit
Speaker 2: wild in that sense that the amount of I guess
Speaker 2: attention and texts and tweets and everything else was a
Speaker 2: little wild.
Speaker 3: I mean, were you surprised that he won this?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think I want to say that
Speaker 2: I said earlier this year, I didn't think it was
Speaker 2: gonna win it this year. I thought the drought was
Speaker 2: gonna keep going. I mean, he didn't have a top
Speaker 2: ten going into Augusta.
Speaker 4: I mean, he hasn't been playing golf. He was off
Speaker 4: everybody's radar. But then, you know, I think this is
Speaker 4: the thing about Augusta and why you kind of kick
Speaker 4: yourself is like majors are they bring a little bit
Speaker 4: different out of it. But like then, you know, he's
Speaker 4: played so well at Augusto over his career, and it's like,
Speaker 4: you look.
Speaker 3: At what what do you need.
Speaker 4: At Augusta More than anything is great iron play, and
Speaker 4: that's that's what he does everywhere.
Speaker 2: Same things as Ala Torus. I mean talking about tough
Speaker 2: conditions bringing out the best. I mean z Aala. Torris's
Speaker 2: best two finishes this year are the US Open and
Speaker 2: the Masters Hideki. His shros gain approach is a little
Speaker 2: bit off this year, but he's finished in the top
Speaker 2: ten in SHROS gain to approach the green every season
Speaker 2: of his career. His full first full season was twenty fourteen,
Speaker 2: and he's been top ten. He's the only player to
Speaker 2: finish top ten in SHROS gain approach the green in
Speaker 2: each of the last seven years, and his streak of
Speaker 2: seven consecutive years of doing that is the longest since
Speaker 2: ros gain was invented. The next best, I think was
Speaker 2: Furich and your Boy Ernie at five, and the next
Speaker 2: longest active streak was Justin Thomas at four. Now, Tiger
Speaker 2: probably would have gotten there if he had seven consecutive
Speaker 2: years where he counted for the stats. But like from
Speaker 2: under the Hany years, I mean really under the Haney yars,
Speaker 2: his iron players unbelievable. In O four to seven he
Speaker 2: was always top ten. He would have been in OA
Speaker 2: he won four to six starts before the knee, and
Speaker 2: he probably would have been again. I think he was
Speaker 2: again in nine, and then of course ten and eleven. Uh,
Speaker 2: he wasn't in the stats again either because of limited play,
Speaker 2: were you.
Speaker 4: You know, what did you think going into Sunday? Did
Speaker 4: you think did you feel like Kadecki was was gonna,
Speaker 4: you know, do what he did, go out and play
Speaker 4: like a really solid round of golf or were you
Speaker 4: was there any of the pursuers that really worried you
Speaker 4: more than others the in terms of him getting it
Speaker 4: done on Sunday.
Speaker 2: So I think when he finished, you know, having played
Speaker 2: the last eight holes in six under, you know, you're like, oh, well,
Speaker 2: he's gonna shoot sixty three tomorrow when this by twelve,
Speaker 2: like he just looked unbeatable. But then I think someone
Speaker 2: made the point that Rory had a four shot lead
Speaker 2: in twenty eleven, and it felt like as I got
Speaker 2: close to the tea time, you're like, man, four shots
Speaker 2: is real. It's not a guarantee. And actually listening to
Speaker 2: the shotgun, start listening to Andy yourself say you know,
Speaker 2: if he shoots seventy, someone's got to shoot sixty six,
Speaker 2: Like all right that you know you put it that way,
Speaker 2: and it felt a little more confident, but you know,
Speaker 2: I don't know. And then you're out there he pushes
Speaker 2: his tee shot one, and I was behind him when
Speaker 2: he hit the second shot, and he hit it through
Speaker 2: the trees, but he did not hit it through the
Speaker 2: gap he was trying to hit it through. Uh. He
Speaker 2: hit it right of a tree and into another gap
Speaker 2: where I think if he at least it didn't seem
Speaker 2: he hit it through the gap he was trying to,
Speaker 2: and so it very easily would have hit the right
Speaker 2: side of that tree and bounced further into trouble.
Speaker 3: It's I mean, it require a little luck.
Speaker 4: You know, he gets through the trees speed doesn't and
Speaker 4: that's like, you know, part of the championship right there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's uh.
Speaker 4: But I mean it was not's how deleted evaporated one
Speaker 4: by the time he gets off one. But at the
Speaker 4: same time, I think this is something that happens with
Speaker 4: the gust every year. Is it kind of tricks us?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you've got two and three coming up.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because he you know, it's like it doesn't on
Speaker 4: the back nine too, where you have that run of
Speaker 4: really scorable holes and then every year like, oh, maybe
Speaker 4: this guy's gonna be the guy and they're like, well,
Speaker 4: he's just played all like the gettable holes and all
Speaker 4: the leaders haven't and ever going through the murderer stretch,
Speaker 4: and I think the same thing happens right out of
Speaker 4: the gates with like you get through one, then you
Speaker 4: got scorable two, three, But you know it's four or five,
Speaker 4: six really determine how you play that front nine.
Speaker 3: It seems like, to.
Speaker 2: Be honest, I kind of thought Zalad Horus, I mean,
Speaker 2: he was the one I kind of felt like was
Speaker 2: the biggest threat. It was just that, you know, the
Speaker 2: longer I've covered this, the more you realize, like so
Speaker 2: much of it is just mental. Like Jordan Spieth was
Speaker 2: not the best ball striker in college golf, like he was,
Speaker 2: you know, had some scrapy areas he still does, but
Speaker 2: he wins three majors. You just see it with these
Speaker 2: guys who are just so mentally tough, and like Zalad
Speaker 2: Torres to do what he did in these two majors
Speaker 2: and you know, play rock solid on Saturday while in
Speaker 2: the final group with Justin Rose, you know, it just
Speaker 2: shows that mentally he has something, and so I kind
Speaker 2: of thought that he might just you know, if it
Speaker 2: becomes an eye players game and he doesn't fold, which
Speaker 2: it didn't look like he was gonna do, then I
Speaker 2: kind of thought that he might just go ahead and
Speaker 2: win it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, that's the thing I thought with zalatoris
Speaker 4: one of the most Outside of his play, one of
Speaker 4: the things that I found the most impressive was just
Speaker 4: his candor and interviews, his presence and interviews. He drops
Speaker 4: some zingers. He was like very calm, extraordinarily well spoken,
Speaker 4: and the moment. You know, you see people get into
Speaker 4: these things and a lot of times you're like, oh that,
Speaker 4: like you know, burn Visburger, great great player, but like
Speaker 4: you see him up there and you're like, well, this
Speaker 4: isn't gonna last, you know, And there was something like
Speaker 4: with Xalatorus, not only the way he was playing, but
Speaker 4: the way he was handling himself. You're like, oh, this
Speaker 4: guy is not going away.
Speaker 3: And you know.
Speaker 4: Of I think like in terms of like just like
Speaker 4: a small little thing, Xalatorus makes that putt on eighteen
Speaker 4: on Sunday, and I think it's a lot different of
Speaker 4: a Sunday if if Decki's playing with Xalatorus and a
Speaker 4: three back rather than where zal Tours was a few
Speaker 4: groups ahead of them, Because I think I val Tours
Speaker 4: was the guy that would have put the pressure on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it's funny because Hedecki's up five with a
Speaker 2: turn and Porter just keeps going. I mean, speF is
Speaker 2: up six and no. Granted he had a dunk in
Speaker 2: the water on twelve. I really thought once he birdied thirteen,
Speaker 2: I thought it was over. Five up was five to go.
Speaker 2: There's no real danger except maybe fifteen. But even then,
Speaker 2: if you hit your second shot on the water, you
Speaker 2: could get out of there with bogie pretty easy. I
Speaker 2: didn't think it hit in along the back water, but
Speaker 2: I mean, Xander, I mean that we couldn't see that
Speaker 2: bunker shot ply as well as people on TV. But
Speaker 2: based on the reaction with the patrons, it seemed like
Speaker 2: it was really close to dropping.
Speaker 4: Oh it was so close it was. I mean, it
Speaker 4: was like it burned thatdge and.
Speaker 2: Then it's one shot.
Speaker 4: You know, well, you know, so this is where I
Speaker 4: kind of like him and hide. It's like the record
Speaker 4: books are going to show us a one shot win.
Speaker 4: But it was not that close.
Speaker 2: No. But I mean if that if that bunker shot drops,
Speaker 2: he's only up one with three holes to go.
Speaker 4: One of the things when you build a five shot
Speaker 4: lead with five to go, you're afforded a leeway of mistakes.
Speaker 4: And you know, obviously the big mistake was fifteen, but
Speaker 4: that was the smarter miss than the short miss. Like
Speaker 4: the shortness is when you welcome in eight, you know,
Speaker 4: it all of a sudden enters the chat. But you know,
Speaker 4: he had the three put on sixteen, obviously a hard putt.
Speaker 4: He had the you know, he had a missed short
Speaker 4: putt on fourteen. Like that's the other thing about his round, Like,
Speaker 4: you know, he played great seven, he missed short one seven.
Speaker 4: Like it was not a bulletproof round, but like the
Speaker 4: iron play was extraordinary for the stretch of holes that
Speaker 4: you really needed to be on fire, you know, when
Speaker 4: you think about six through fourteen, he didn't really miss
Speaker 4: many shots, you know.
Speaker 2: And I thought your point about, you know, thinking back
Speaker 2: to the birdie on thirteen down eighteen on Saturday, your
Speaker 2: point that everyone thinks that, you know, chipping and putting
Speaker 2: are correlated. The short game is correlated. And obviously we
Speaker 2: know about his putting. He's a fantastic chipper of the
Speaker 2: golf ball, oh him.
Speaker 4: And it's like him and Sergio, they have this thing
Speaker 4: about really great iron players like who struggle with putting.
Speaker 2: It's great hands. I mean Web Simpson is kind of
Speaker 2: the same way too, I mean just great hands.
Speaker 4: You know, Tony, I think you could throw in that bucket. Also,
Speaker 4: like everybody's like, oh, he gets it done with distance,
Speaker 4: and it's like, well, he's a top twenty player around
Speaker 4: the greens like that.
Speaker 3: You know, that doesn't happen that often.
Speaker 2: I think too. We talk about the golf swing being
Speaker 2: about big muscles and you want to take the little
Speaker 2: muscles out of it. In the club's traveling one hundred
Speaker 2: miles an hour on iron shots, and you know you
Speaker 2: can't really finagle it, but at the same time, you
Speaker 2: know you did here. I remember Phil one year talking
Speaker 2: about where he was at with his game. He had
Speaker 2: just twished to uh Andrew gets in his current teacher
Speaker 2: and he's like, you know, I think I've got the
Speaker 2: big motions down, but it's still now just getting those tiny,
Speaker 2: tiny motions with a hand to work the ball. And
Speaker 2: so there is still some hands in the iron shots,
Speaker 2: you know, when you're dealing with side hill lies and
Speaker 2: maybe an imperfect lie, there still is there's still some
Speaker 2: hands there whereas kind of the driver probably not as much.
Speaker 4: M Hey, you did a really great piece on Bob Turner,
Speaker 4: his interpreter a few years back, twenty fourteen, and I'm
Speaker 4: just curious, you know, about his impact on Hideki through
Speaker 4: the years. Obviously he's been basically at his side for
Speaker 4: everything for since he turned pro. Can you shed a
Speaker 4: little bit more light on on Bob Turner?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So interesting. I mean I think everyone saw it,
Speaker 2: yes or Sunday. You know, Bob Turner is just a
Speaker 2: white guy. He's not from Japan, but he's living in
Speaker 2: Northern California. Converted to Mormonism and did his mission in Japan,
Speaker 2: and it was a pretty good golfer, was playing college golf,
Speaker 2: went over to Japan and then came back and had
Speaker 2: met a woman there and so decided to go back.
Speaker 2: And so he goes over there, gets married, plays his
Speaker 2: final year of college golf in Japan, and so it's
Speaker 2: like all Japanese guys and this one white dude and
Speaker 2: the college golf team used to help at the Dunlop Phoenix,
Speaker 2: which is that kind of that big event that they
Speaker 2: do appearance Fees Brooks has wanted, Tigers wanted, Sev's wanted.
Speaker 2: They get, you know, a handful of international stars every
Speaker 2: year and the college team was the standard bearers, and
Speaker 2: so somebody saw Bob and they're like, well, what's your story?
Speaker 2: What are you doing here, because I mean, he's the
Speaker 2: one white guy in Japan or at the tournament and
Speaker 2: told his story, and so they started using him to translate,
Speaker 2: like when Seve would come over or Tiger or any
Speaker 2: of those players will come over to Dunlop Phoenix, he
Speaker 2: became the translator and so then he just started this
Speaker 2: business of translating for golfers. And so his son, Alan
Speaker 2: actually was the the bullpen catcher and the translator for
Speaker 2: a Seattle Mariners reliever. I can't remember his name, and
Speaker 2: I want to say that the golf coach at Hideki's
Speaker 2: university was also that had been the baseball coach. I
Speaker 2: had met him. He was like, he seemed like a
Speaker 2: base and so they got connected and asked Alan to
Speaker 2: translate when Hideki came to his first Masters in twenty eleven,
Speaker 2: which actually uh Hideki and I both played Augusta for
Speaker 2: the first time of the same year, just you know,
Speaker 2: another connection. So that was and then Bob eventually he
Speaker 2: became his translator, and Alan actually still works for the Mariners.
Speaker 2: He translates now for Echiro Eachiro's coaching in the Mariners system.
Speaker 2: And so I think it's been a huge help because
Speaker 2: I mean, you have Hideki over here. You know, he
Speaker 2: still doesn't speak you know, he's not fluent in English.
Speaker 2: Obviously a lot of guys say he speaks more than
Speaker 2: he lets on, but that helps him kind of stay focused.
Speaker 2: But I think he helped with the transition immensely. I mean,
Speaker 2: Hideki when he first came over was doing kind of
Speaker 2: the Sunjay thing of like going hotel to hotel, didn't
Speaker 2: have a house.
Speaker 3: Where does where does Hideki live in the States now
Speaker 3: when he is Orlando Orlando?
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, So I think it's been a huge help.
Speaker 2: And I think too, you know, Hideki said that he
Speaker 2: asked Bob or he was going to ask Bob on Saturday,
Speaker 2: like what what did Sevy do in situations like this?
Speaker 2: And he didn't have a chance to. But I think
Speaker 2: Bob also because he's been around Tiger and Sevi and
Speaker 2: other Japanese star golfers, he can provide some of that
Speaker 2: as well. And you know, Bob's really low key, really chill.
Speaker 2: A lot of times I seen at events and we
Speaker 2: just talk about like he lost about my kids and
Speaker 2: we'll just have like small talk. And he's just a
Speaker 2: very low key, relaxed person. So I could see him
Speaker 2: possibly helping, you know, Hideki in that because Hideki is
Speaker 2: so intense.
Speaker 4: With with Hideki. Obviously, I think a lot of people
Speaker 4: are learning more about him. He seems like an extremely
Speaker 4: private person. I mean, obviously there's the the tales of
Speaker 4: him hiding his not only marriage but the birth of
Speaker 4: his first child from from the Japanese press that have
Speaker 4: you know, tried to infiltrate every aspect of his life.
Speaker 4: Were you surprised at all to see him flying commercial
Speaker 4: out of Atlanta.
Speaker 2: A little bit? It's funny. I found a clip on
Speaker 2: YouTube of like a Japanese morning show had called into
Speaker 2: like his Orlando house, and I mean this thing was
Speaker 2: like bare bones. You know, there was like nothing on
Speaker 2: the walls. There's just this and I don't know if
Speaker 2: it's still where he lives in Orlando, but you know
Speaker 2: it's like there was a treadmill and there was but there.
Speaker 2: It looked like basically like a college guy's house, not decorated,
Speaker 2: just basic, which kind of feels like it fits his
Speaker 2: life of like there's golf, and like, that's it. I
Speaker 2: wasn't shocked. I mean, also, if he was going to Japan,
Speaker 2: I mean, frankly, I don't know if you can fly
Speaker 2: private across the Pacific. Uh, maybe you can't.
Speaker 3: I guess he had to go to he had to
Speaker 3: come to Chicago.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: He doesn't stop them by my house to do an interview.
Speaker 2: But my favorite thing, but I still love the line
Speaker 2: about when someone asked him like, well, why didn't you
Speaker 2: tell the media that you had a wife and child,
Speaker 2: And He's like, well, no one asked. And so I've
Speaker 2: always wanted to, like then ask him every week like oh,
Speaker 2: how many children were at now you know you have
Speaker 2: another kid? Or but I think, you know, talking to
Speaker 2: Japanese media, like it's not just that he gives very
Speaker 2: short answers to the English press because they have to
Speaker 2: be translated, like he's a man of few words. Like
Speaker 2: to the Japanese press, they kind of compare him to
Speaker 2: to Tiger in the sense of like it's very buttoned
Speaker 2: up answers are very serious, not a lot of not
Speaker 2: a lot of jokes, you know, kind of like when
Speaker 2: Tiger went is a prime it was just very you
Speaker 2: know yes and no answers, and for my sense of
Speaker 2: like what he has to do in those post round
Speaker 2: sessions with the Japanese media after every round, like there's
Speaker 2: a lot of questions are like of, you know, you
Speaker 2: missed a fifteen footer, why did that happen? You know
Speaker 2: you missed the green with a six iron, why did
Speaker 2: that happen? You made bogie? Why did that happen? Instead
Speaker 2: of like, you know, sometimes you miss a fifteen footer
Speaker 2: because you miss a fifteen footer, and so sometimes those
Speaker 2: things just happened because you can't hit every shot perfectly.
Speaker 2: But I think too, it's just very it can be
Speaker 2: hard on him because it is like, you know, having
Speaker 2: to answer for every bogie and every miss putt, and
Speaker 2: you know it's very detailed of like what club did
Speaker 2: you hit? And but it's you know, players have to
Speaker 2: do that when they win on Sunday, but not when
Speaker 2: they shoot a Thursday seventy one, and so it's just
Speaker 2: it's exhausting, I think, And so I think part of
Speaker 2: it too is short answers to kind of frankly keep
Speaker 2: those things from not going too long. Because even I
Speaker 2: was shocked, I was I read right, Thompson's Peace and
Speaker 2: then I text actually dammed with cantadeck you win, because
Speaker 2: I had no idea. He cried after the twenty seventeen PGA,
Speaker 2: which I was surprised. That's such an emotional reaction and
Speaker 2: he feels like a man of few emotions, so that
Speaker 2: was interesting to me. You know.
Speaker 4: Obviously the twenty seventeen near miss at the PGA was
Speaker 4: something that impacted him a lot, and I think it's
Speaker 4: something that you've covered. How did that you know, how
Speaker 4: long was that you know period where he kind of
Speaker 4: struggled after that.
Speaker 2: I mean he was almost on top of the world
Speaker 2: before that. You got to remember, so like the week
Speaker 2: before at Firestone he shoot sixty one to win by five,
Speaker 2: and even the summer or the kind of winter and
Speaker 2: early of twenty seventeen he was on that run where
Speaker 2: he finished like first or second and seven straight events.
Speaker 2: That was.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was like a crazy hero. It coincided with
Speaker 3: the hero.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one HSBC an event I think he won. The
Speaker 2: Dunloft was like second at Century and so he was
Speaker 2: second in the world. He got back to second in
Speaker 2: the world after Firestone. I think we forget the HECKU
Speaker 2: Watsi Alma's number two in the world, and so then
Speaker 2: the next week of the PGA, she shoots that sixty
Speaker 2: four in the second round, which was like just flawless.
Speaker 2: I looked it back. He made two punts outs I
Speaker 2: had eight feet like it was ridiculous. And I don't
Speaker 2: remember the exact details, but I remember he made a
Speaker 2: pot on fifteen the uphill par five a quil Holla
Speaker 2: made like a ten footer and he was like, Oh,
Speaker 2: this is happening. And then he bogie two last three
Speaker 2: to finish three back, which also JT had a two
Speaker 2: shot lead going into the last hole and kind of
Speaker 2: did what Hydeki did of just making an easy bogie
Speaker 2: and get out of there with the trophy. But I
Speaker 2: didn't know that he cried afterwards until Monday. But it's
Speaker 2: very easy to think like that seems to have had
Speaker 2: a huge effect on him because he was on top
Speaker 2: of the world, almost unbeatable, and then that's it. It
Speaker 2: falls off the map, and like he never wins for
Speaker 2: four years later. So Bob, when we asked him on Sunday,
Speaker 2: said it didn't affect him. It just seems like too
Speaker 2: much of a coincidence. I think I mean it had
Speaker 2: to affect him and for him, he's not a very
Speaker 2: emotional guy, and for him to cry afterwards, you kind
Speaker 2: of realize, like, yeah, I beleeve that one is His wind.
Speaker 4: Just comes at a really interesting time because obviously we've
Speaker 4: we've had Hideki around forever. Now it's it's nuts that
Speaker 4: he's only twenty nine, you know, and you almost forget
Speaker 4: about it. He becomes yesterday's news, but he's still like
Speaker 4: sub thirty year old golfer with a ton of golf
Speaker 4: ahead of him now, you know. But at the same
Speaker 4: time time he had become almost an afterthought because of
Speaker 4: this wave of youth that has infiltrated the PGA Tour,
Speaker 4: Willseel Torus among you know, the likes of Kyle More,
Speaker 4: Kawa Holin, Matthew Wolfe, Camera Champ, you know, all these
Speaker 4: guys that are winning, and it's now it almost resets
Speaker 4: expectations and it's like where does Hideki go now from here?
Speaker 2: Yeah, being twenty nine or thirty feels like the third
Speaker 2: generation or like third youngest generation of PJ Tour players.
Speaker 2: So like, you know, you've got Rory who's about to
Speaker 2: thirty two. Hideki's that age Brooks is that age. But
Speaker 2: then you think about them, you're like, yeah, but they're
Speaker 2: older than Jordan and Justin and Xander, you know, like, yeah,
Speaker 2: but there are a few years older than Markowell Wolf
Speaker 2: Hobland and so yeah, I mean they're like the I
Speaker 2: feel like they're the third oldest generation in a set
Speaker 2: of golfers, of like our third oldest tier of golfers
Speaker 2: in a sense that they're like almost in their middle
Speaker 2: age when they're really not. I mean, you know, everyone
Speaker 2: says Phil when his first major at thirty four, which
Speaker 2: you know what DJ has done since turning about thirty five.
Speaker 2: I mean I think maybe like it's harder with a
Speaker 2: distance game, but I don't know that it does. You still,
Speaker 2: there's just so much about having the head on your shoulders.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I think we forget about thirty year olds
Speaker 2: a little bit because of Morikawa, Wolf Hobbling those guys.
Speaker 4: It's like almost become like you're always looking for the
Speaker 4: next big thing. Yeah, and and and it used to
Speaker 4: be you beg a major before your thirtieth birthday and
Speaker 4: it's like, whoa, this is a big deal.
Speaker 3: You know, this is a twenty nine year old.
Speaker 4: How many is he going to win and it feels like,
Speaker 4: you know, one of the things I think with Hideki
Speaker 4: is it's easy to look at a guy like Sergio
Speaker 4: or Adam Scott as his career ar comp you know,
Speaker 4: but it'll be interesting to see if he can if
Speaker 4: he can beg more. Obviously, Augusta National is going to
Speaker 4: be a great place for him for ten plus years
Speaker 4: going forward. And with his game, his game works pretty
Speaker 4: much everywhere you play.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, I mean good ball, shrinking plays everywhere. You know.
Speaker 2: He parted well, you know, so he hired his first
Speaker 2: golf coach in December. He'd never had a coach before that.
Speaker 3: That's crazy.
Speaker 2: I know, it'll be interesting see he does before then.
Speaker 3: How did he learn to swing?
Speaker 2: Well, his dad's like a ten time club champion, So
Speaker 2: his dad's a good player. And I think YouTube, you know,
Speaker 2: watching Tiger and you know, when he played, he played
Speaker 2: on the college team, So he played college golfit to
Speaker 2: Hoku Fukushi, So I think there was coaching there, you know,
Speaker 2: Like when the tsunami hit, he was in Australia for
Speaker 2: like a college training session, so I think that he
Speaker 2: had some coaching there, But he didn't have like a
Speaker 2: one on one swing instructor, and then once he turned
Speaker 2: pros on the tour full time, he didn't have an instructor.
Speaker 2: I think he picked a lot of brains and he
Speaker 2: definitely watched a lot, so I think. And but that
Speaker 2: can get you in trouble too, because you're like, oh,
Speaker 2: you know, I want to do this, and I want
Speaker 2: to do that, and DJ does this, and Rory does this,
Speaker 2: and tie or does this, and you try to throw
Speaker 2: them all together and then they don't match up, and
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, you're a mess. So I wonder
Speaker 2: if I wonder too, if what caused the four years
Speaker 2: was that he lost the PGA, started questioning some things maybe,
Speaker 2: and then but didn't have anyone to keep him on
Speaker 2: the path he was on, and like, so he just started, yeah,
Speaker 2: trying to mix and match to what Rory does and
Speaker 2: JT does and Speed does and just got a little
Speaker 2: crossed up. So I mean, really, I do, I mean
Speaker 2: at this coach, you know, if he has like a
Speaker 2: singular path, I mean, he could get back to that
Speaker 2: good golf again of being two in the world if
Speaker 2: he you know, maybe if his problem was in fact
Speaker 2: from just tinkering too much, well.
Speaker 3: That's something that is crazy about.
Speaker 4: You know, as bad as he's played by his standards,
Speaker 4: he just for a couple of weeks drops outside of
Speaker 4: the top thirty of the world. Like the slide is
Speaker 4: not anything compared to you know, your your Jordan Speith
Speaker 4: fallen to ninetieth in the world or Ricky Fowler you know,
Speaker 4: dropping outside of the top one hundred for the first time.
Speaker 4: Like this is the guy still played at an extraordinarily
Speaker 4: high level worldwide despite being in you know, a all
Speaker 4: time slump for him.
Speaker 2: He never missed East Lake, so he's made Eastlake every
Speaker 2: year these every full year on the tour as well,
Speaker 2: he's made east like seven straight years. So yeah, so
Speaker 2: as bad as a god, he's still top thirty in
Speaker 2: the FedEx CUB So I think that does prove kind
Speaker 2: of yeah that even his worst was, i mean, not
Speaker 2: that bad by comparisons of what we've seen from other people.
Speaker 4: We talked about the limited media presence out there. Do
Speaker 4: you think in any ways I've seen this floated as
Speaker 4: like you know with COVID and they're being less Japanese
Speaker 4: media around. Do you think that at all was a
Speaker 4: factor in helping him or do you think it was minimal.
Speaker 2: I think he didn't mind it. You know, he was
Speaker 2: asked like, hey, does this make it easier and he
Speaker 2: said He's like, I don't know how to answer this,
Speaker 2: like politically correct, but he was like, yeah, I prefer
Speaker 2: it this way. So it didn't hurt. I mean I
Speaker 2: could see it because I mean, when we have to
Speaker 2: do that much media in a sense, unless you're Tiger,
Speaker 2: I guess you know, the lowers can get lower and
Speaker 2: the highs and can get higher. They can almost get
Speaker 2: you too excited about which just happened everyone around you
Speaker 2: all excited, or they can bring you down by having
Speaker 2: you know, you have to walk through everything bad that's
Speaker 2: going on. So it couldn't have hurt. But at the
Speaker 2: same time, it's been like this since since the season
Speaker 2: resumed in I guess May of last year, and you know,
Speaker 2: he wasn't playing that great since the season rezoom. So
Speaker 2: I don't know. I think that possibly, but if it
Speaker 2: really helped that much, we would have seen the results
Speaker 2: earlier a year later.
Speaker 4: What do you kind of forecast in terms of short
Speaker 4: term You know, everybody's talking about the ramifications of this win,
Speaker 4: what it's going to mean for golf, Obviously, it's a
Speaker 4: huge win in Japan, which is a golf create, a
Speaker 4: large golf crazed country that's been waiting a long time
Speaker 4: for a major championship winner. What do you kind of
Speaker 4: forecast as the short term, you know, big impact that
Speaker 4: this is going to have and maybe the long term I.
Speaker 2: Don't know, I don't know. It's interesting. So from a
Speaker 2: Deca's standpoint, it's interesting because he always got that question,
Speaker 2: what's it gonna win if you win a major for Japan?
Speaker 2: And it's not that he didn't care per se, but
Speaker 2: it was like, look, I want to win the Masters
Speaker 2: because I want to win the Masters, like not, I
Speaker 2: want to win the Masters if I want to inspire
Speaker 2: all these kids. Though he did talk very well about it.
Speaker 2: I think short term, I mean, he's just gonna deal
Speaker 2: with a lot, I mean, I assume there's gonna be
Speaker 2: I think, you know, pressure on him to play a lot,
Speaker 2: maybe more in Japan. He's done really playing regular Japan
Speaker 2: events outside of the kind of November December, which I
Speaker 2: think the Japan Open is then in the Dunlop Phoenix.
Speaker 2: So in a sense, you do have all this media,
Speaker 2: but you're also a continent away when you're in the States,
Speaker 2: so that might help a little bit. But I mean,
Speaker 2: I do wonder he doesn't seem to have a problem
Speaker 2: saying no, which will be helpful. But I mean, there's
Speaker 2: just gonna be so much asked of his time in
Speaker 2: the lead up to the Olympics, and which I thought,
Speaker 2: it's showing that he's able to say no. I think
Speaker 2: he was asked, you know, or you do you think
Speaker 2: you'll be asked to light the torch at the Olympics,
Speaker 2: and he said, I have no idea. If it fits
Speaker 2: my schedule, I would love to, So like he's not
Speaker 2: going to drop everything to be on you know, to
Speaker 2: do all this media stuff or whatever. But I think again,
Speaker 2: I think it's just all the scrutiny. You know that
Speaker 2: that can get tiring. So you know, like I wonder
Speaker 2: with COVID, you know, Japanese media might be trying to
Speaker 2: send all those people back over to the States to
Speaker 2: cover them again, so you might go back to having
Speaker 2: all that media. And you know a lot of times
Speaker 2: you get all that media. A lot of time it's
Speaker 2: not golf savvy media, so that's why you get the
Speaker 2: questions like, well, why do you miss that putt or
Speaker 2: can can can you win? Right?
Speaker 4: It's the Uh It's funny because that was one of
Speaker 4: the I think that was the first major that I've
Speaker 4: I covered in person, and uh it just happened to
Speaker 4: coincide with the every every single press conference, Canha Decu win?
Speaker 4: And that was when Deci was really reaching his peak
Speaker 4: before he had this you know, kind of swoon and.
Speaker 2: You do wonder when you got to Kumi Kanaya coming up.
Speaker 2: I don't know about the pipeline after that. I mean,
Speaker 2: there's got to be something for seeing that someone can
Speaker 2: do it. It's the whole thing of like, well I
Speaker 2: used to beat this guy, and then I just saw
Speaker 2: him win the Masters, so maybe I can win the Masters.
Speaker 2: So it has to help in that sense. But I
Speaker 2: don't know. I mean, you know, he'd actually been world
Speaker 2: class for ten years. You haven't seen a wave of
Speaker 2: players follow him at the same time at the same.
Speaker 3: Time, though.
Speaker 4: It took that in America for Tiger for a while.
Speaker 4: You know, like if you think about the PGA Tour
Speaker 4: in two thousand and six, which would have been ten
Speaker 4: years after Tiger burst onto the scene, that was the
Speaker 4: worst Ryder Cup team in the history of the Ryder Cup,
Speaker 4: you know, like it's a it's not a one decade after,
Speaker 4: it's more of a you know, two three decade where
Speaker 4: like now I think we really see the Tiger's impact
Speaker 4: with the guys like will Zel, Tours, Kylin Morikawa, Matthew Wolf.
Speaker 4: That that really, to me speaks kind of to the
Speaker 4: Tiger era.
Speaker 2: One of the things that was interesting in doing a
Speaker 2: story years ago on Korean man is as like Sea
Speaker 2: Wu was starting to emerge on a scene and song
Speaker 2: You'll Know and a couple other younger Koreans, was that
Speaker 2: it used to be you know, like kJ Rid on
Speaker 2: the scene at thirty five, why Yang like the same age.
Speaker 2: They didn't come to the States until they were older.
Speaker 2: And so all of these guys in Korea they played
Speaker 2: the Korean Tour first and then maybe went over to
Speaker 2: the States. And in Korea, because it's an island, the
Speaker 2: courses are shorter and tighter and smaller because there's only
Speaker 2: so much land, and land's expensive, and so Korean players
Speaker 2: developed a type of game suited for those courses. And
Speaker 2: so when they got over the United States and everything
Speaker 2: was bigger and wide open and longer, they struggled, and
Speaker 2: so once you had guys coming over at a younger
Speaker 2: age and seeing what they had to do to compete
Speaker 2: against Americans, and in America they started developing a game
Speaker 2: there's better suited for America. So I do wonder, you know,
Speaker 2: with Hideki he could help that of Like you know,
Speaker 2: I don't know if Japan's the same where the courses
Speaker 2: are shorter and smaller and tighter because of the lack
Speaker 2: of land because it's an island also, but I think
Speaker 2: it's similar and so well.
Speaker 4: I think that's I think that's something that stands out,
Speaker 4: like when you think about Ishikawa, Yeah, and where he failed,
Speaker 4: like you know, he didn't necessarily have the the gas
Speaker 4: pedal when it got came to America, like where he
Speaker 4: didn't have the sheer power in all that is Thatdki
Speaker 4: Hideki's a big like. I think that's one of the
Speaker 4: things if you've never seen Hideki in person, one of
Speaker 4: the things that sticks out right.
Speaker 3: Off the bat is how big he is.
Speaker 4: Yeah, his legs and lower body is just he's just
Speaker 4: a big dude. And it's I think that's where he
Speaker 4: his game was so American friendly, you know, in terms
Speaker 4: of it, and I think coming over for the Masters,
Speaker 4: as you wrote in your piece, had to have a
Speaker 4: huge impact on him at a young age.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think too. I mean, he is a
Speaker 2: big baseball fan, and he talked about his idols growing
Speaker 2: up and they were baseball players like Darbish and Otani,
Speaker 2: and so I think also in a sense of that
Speaker 2: tiger aspect too, where like he viewed himself as an
Speaker 2: athlete versus a golfer. And then frankly, he's got a
Speaker 2: lot bigger. You look at pictures from the two thousand
Speaker 2: eleven and Asi and Am and I mean it's like
Speaker 2: he's gotten bigger. He's got a lot bigger, which I
Speaker 2: think in right Thompson's story he said even he's had
Speaker 2: to answer questions about that, like why you gained so
Speaker 2: much weight, which is I mean, just think about having
Speaker 2: it answer questions about like everything in like from your
Speaker 2: weight gain to your you know, club selection into I mean,
Speaker 2: it would probably drive you crazy a little bit.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, it'd be hard to be like polite
Speaker 4: when people are asking like all those questions. Like I
Speaker 4: get agitated when people ask me a lot of questions.
Speaker 4: It's it's a natural reaction. One of the things that
Speaker 4: stuck stuck out to me. Also was how he talked
Speaker 4: about like his first thought, it seemed like, was how
Speaker 4: happy he was for his caddy. Yeah, that just seems
Speaker 4: so gracious, gracious and generous, and it's like it wasn't
Speaker 4: about him winning the Masters as much as hey, I
Speaker 4: finally got a win for my new my caddy that
Speaker 4: was new on the bag, Like who's gone through all
Speaker 4: these years of not winning?
Speaker 2: You know, that answer really did surprise me, just because
Speaker 2: he's talked about how you know, he wanted to win
Speaker 2: the Masters forever, and you do think it as being
Speaker 2: so singularly focused, you know, you would think when you win,
Speaker 2: your first thought is I won the Masters, Like I'm
Speaker 2: coming here for life. I've won the Masters. So I
Speaker 2: was surprised by the answer, but then it pretty quickly
Speaker 2: hit and then I was surprised too. You know that
Speaker 2: video that I've seen people mention, I didn't se until
Speaker 2: after I was done writing, but the one where he's
Speaker 2: walking off the green and you know, you can tell
Speaker 2: he almost cries, he's starting to choke up and it
Speaker 2: starts to hit him like that was I was a
Speaker 2: little surprising because I don't expect emotions out of him.
Speaker 2: Like I said, I first heard about the quill Hollow Tears,
Speaker 2: you know, after I was done writing as well, when
Speaker 2: I read it and writes story. I think sometimes that
Speaker 2: actually can help because sometimes you know, when the game
Speaker 2: beats you down, you realize why you love the game
Speaker 2: and how much you love it. And I think when
Speaker 2: a guy cries after wearing a major, I think that's
Speaker 2: a lot of it. You realize, like how much this
Speaker 2: means to you. I think when golf's treating you poorly,
Speaker 2: you're like, I just got to get away from it.
Speaker 2: I got to get you know, get away from the golf,
Speaker 2: get away from the course. I gotta get away. And
Speaker 2: you know, I think we all know this, Like when
Speaker 2: you have a good round or hit a good shot,
Speaker 2: it pulls you back in. I'm like, man, this is
Speaker 2: why I love golf so much well.
Speaker 4: And I think that's something that translates at every every
Speaker 4: level of golf, from your eighteen to twenty five handicap
Speaker 4: that's trying to win the C flight or the D
Speaker 4: flight of their club championship, all the way up to
Speaker 4: the best players in the world. Is the reality is
Speaker 4: that for most golfers, ninety nine percent of the time
Speaker 4: you fail like it. They these are those one percent
Speaker 4: moments that you have to cherish because the game beats
Speaker 4: you up so much, and especially and this is especially
Speaker 4: the case for a player like Matsuama, where it's been
Speaker 4: really rough three years. It's probably the most he struggled
Speaker 4: with the game of golf in in his entire life
Speaker 4: the last couple of years and getting a major finally
Speaker 4: after like many close calls. You know, something I immediately
Speaker 4: was thinking about when they got put on the clock
Speaker 4: was a decade at Mirfield all the way back to
Speaker 4: twenty thirteen. Like, you know, there's just so many moments
Speaker 4: in it's so natural, Like it's almost weird when somebody
Speaker 4: doesn't choke up when they when they accomplish something like this.
Speaker 4: You know, you see it with marathon ors, like somebody
Speaker 4: running a marathon, they finished the marathon, they start crying
Speaker 4: because you've poured months and months of time into running
Speaker 4: that marathon. It just like these golfers have poured so
Speaker 4: many hours into you know, really peaking and playing their
Speaker 4: best on the biggest stage like the Masters. So you've
Speaker 4: been a hideki appreciator in the media for the longest time.
Speaker 3: I'd love to hear how that all started.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I think, you know, I think a lot
Speaker 2: of people forgotten that I worked at Golf Week or
Speaker 2: never knew that because I've been at the tour for
Speaker 2: eight years now, But before that, I was at Golf Week,
Speaker 2: and for a lot of that I was covering you know,
Speaker 2: college and amateur golf. And so actually I went to
Speaker 2: the first Asia Pacific Amateur and I remember when they announced.
Speaker 3: It, I was like, what was that experience?
Speaker 2: Like that to do a quick diversion so that Mission
Speaker 2: Hills where they have like the fourteen golf courses, mm hmm.
Speaker 2: But like flew into Hong Kong, spent some couple of
Speaker 2: days there, and then I mean literally like Augusta arranged
Speaker 2: for a driver, so I like, this guy drove me.
Speaker 2: But then you have to go through customs to get
Speaker 2: from Hong Kong to China. And this guy's like, all right,
Speaker 2: I'll meet you on the other side. Like I can't
Speaker 2: go through with you. I'll just be there to pick
Speaker 2: you up. And so you like walk into this building
Speaker 2: and wait in line, and you're like it's always a
Speaker 2: little bit nerve wracking and saying that you're like going
Speaker 2: to enter the country as a journalist because like I
Speaker 2: think I said I was a tourist. I hope I
Speaker 2: don't hold against me now. But then you're like, all right,
Speaker 2: I hope I see this guy on the other side,
Speaker 2: because if I don't, I don't know what, like what
Speaker 2: do you do? Then? Uh, so he's there. You know.
Speaker 2: We go to Mission Hills and Shenzen, and the one
Speaker 2: main thing I remember was outside the golf was the
Speaker 2: like I was staying. There's it's a huge property. There's
Speaker 2: fourteen golf courses and I was in some tower, you know,
Speaker 2: and stay in My room was away from like the
Speaker 2: main kind of the main resort area, staying in this hotel.
Speaker 2: It was a very nice room, but like I had
Speaker 2: serious jet lag. It's I'm awake at like one two
Speaker 2: in the morning and there's like nothing to eat. Uh
Speaker 2: there's no restaurant there, and I don't I didn't really try.
Speaker 2: Probably should have tried see if I could get like
Speaker 2: a shuttle to the main area. I probably I don't know,
Speaker 2: to get some food. But like so I just raided
Speaker 2: the minibar every night and lived like lived off em
Speaker 2: and M's and snickers for like a week while I
Speaker 2: was awakened all the night. But it was really cool.
Speaker 2: I mean obviously like Billy Payne was there as the
Speaker 2: chairman of Augusta. You know, it was a really big deal.
Speaker 2: And I mean I remember like talking to a guy
Speaker 2: from the team from I think, like I forget where
Speaker 2: when he talked about how he was a caddie and
Speaker 2: like he used to sneak onto the golf course whenever
Speaker 2: they caught him, like he'd get beat, but he loved
Speaker 2: golf so much he would just keeps sneaking on the
Speaker 2: golf course. And you know, I think when this was formed,
Speaker 2: you know Australia and New Zealander included because it's the
Speaker 2: whole Asia Pacific region. I assumed, you know, Australia is
Speaker 2: gonna win every one of these mean Australian kid a
Speaker 2: gust every year, and you know it wasn't the first year.
Speaker 2: Was this kid I think cheng wu Han was his name.
Speaker 2: He was a Korean. He won it. I haven't seen
Speaker 2: him do a whole lot. I've seen his name occasionally
Speaker 2: on Asian Tour results. But Hedeki was the second and
Speaker 2: third champion, so he did well. You know. Then he
Speaker 2: had gwan to Kami Kanaya Yu Shin Lane has won
Speaker 2: it twice and he's a pretty good college player over
Speaker 2: at Florida. Now, so you know, even like ct Pan,
Speaker 2: who was a top ranked I think he's a number
Speaker 2: one amateur in the world. For a while he was
Speaker 2: like age seventeen, Yeah, youngest US amateur court final since
Speaker 2: Bobby Jones. Actually Olympic Club at two thousand and seven.
Speaker 2: It was like fourteen in me the quarters anyways, But
Speaker 2: a great player all American at Washington wins on the
Speaker 2: PGA Tour like he played it I think four years
Speaker 2: and never won it, which shows you that, I mean
Speaker 2: the depth there.
Speaker 3: Well you think that even like Curtis Luck.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, it's like uh and now like Elvis Smiley,
Speaker 4: a kid that's making waves, Like you know, there's a
Speaker 4: lot of really good players that don't winning a golf there.
Speaker 3: This is a news flash, I don't know, but winning
Speaker 3: a golf it was really hard and.
Speaker 2: With a masters with a master's been on the line,
Speaker 2: and you know, the Asian amateur is the one that
Speaker 2: had the most made cuts, I believe, you know. But
Speaker 2: the same thing of like you see you compete against
Speaker 2: these guys, just see make the cutter Augusta and you
Speaker 2: believe more in yourself. I think there's definitely I think
Speaker 2: it's had that effect. I think it's really worked, uh
Speaker 2: and done what august National hoped it had. I think
Speaker 2: Kindecki proves that. And I mean I was very skeptical
Speaker 2: and very wrong. I think, oh so yeah. So then
Speaker 2: I think my hitdeki appreciation. So then at twenty ten
Speaker 2: or twenty eleven Masters, I'm covering for a golf week
Speaker 2: and I've got to handle the amateur beat. So Hitdeckie
Speaker 2: shoots sixty eight in the third round. It wasn't really
Speaker 2: intention it barely made the cup, but still I think
Speaker 2: when he walked off the golf course, he's like he
Speaker 2: was like in twelfth place, he's gonna fall down the
Speaker 2: leader board. But yeah, I mean sixty eight from a
Speaker 2: nineteen year old amateur Augusta is huge. So I go
Speaker 2: up to a writer I'm not gonna name him, who
Speaker 2: I thought might be covering it, and I go, oh,
Speaker 2: you're gonna go down and get hecky. He's like, no,
Speaker 2: our interurn's handling it, and I kind of like stop.
Speaker 2: He's like no really, and I was like I was like, man,
Speaker 2: this is a huge deal, Like and then you know
Speaker 2: you've heard it before and you know what's gonna happen.
Speaker 2: But a guy that doesn't speak English gets less media coverage,
Speaker 2: which I makes sense, it's harder to write about him.
Speaker 2: And you talked about Bob Turner's impact, and you know, frankly,
Speaker 2: Bob's been huge because Bob helps with that stuff of
Speaker 2: just giving us more information, you know, giving us some
Speaker 2: background information. But I think from then I was like, man,
Speaker 2: like if we were judging this guy only by his
Speaker 2: golf scores, like he'd be a huge deal. Like you know,
Speaker 2: if a nineteen year old American amateur shot sixty eight,
Speaker 2: the masters will be fawning over him. So I was like, man,
Speaker 2: he's gonna get overlooked because of this, which as a journalist,
Speaker 2: I also understand why it's harder to write a great
Speaker 2: story about him. We can't speak directly to him. But
Speaker 2: I also was like, man, but he's also just really
Speaker 2: good and we should pay attention. And so then ever
Speaker 2: since then, and I've been on the Hideki train and
Speaker 2: then it's some somewhere it jumped the shark from like
Speaker 2: you know, to where I'm getting fifty text messages after
Speaker 2: he wins the Masters. But I also and actually on Twitter,
Speaker 2: I'm also just a bit of a contrarian. So if
Speaker 2: everyone's gonna zig, I'm gonna zag, which I think is
Speaker 2: why you know, some people accuse me probably of of
Speaker 2: jumping off the island onto to Xalatora's Island and Moricawa Island.
Speaker 2: I do like the young you know, the young up
Speaker 2: and comers is always in my wane, and so yeah,
Speaker 2: I'll admit it. I probably had like I was probably
Speaker 2: packing up the boat to get off the island and
Speaker 2: then al asudden was like, no, I was gonna be
Speaker 2: here all long. What are you guys talking about? It
Speaker 2: was just putting some stuff away. But also when the
Speaker 2: young up and comers, I follow them, and you know,
Speaker 2: like we said, when you're twenty nine year old, so
Speaker 2: you got to you gotta move on to Xalaturs and
Speaker 2: Moricowa and well.
Speaker 3: Then they get old and then you go back to
Speaker 3: them like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they went a major. I'm like, oh, I've been
Speaker 2: here all along, what are you talking about?
Speaker 3: It's funny.
Speaker 4: I had a similar thing happened to me with you know,
Speaker 4: I feel like when the players that see Wu won
Speaker 4: was it twenty seven, Yeah, twenty seventeen players Seawoo wins
Speaker 4: and there's a similar reaction with so many of the
Speaker 4: media that groans and everything, and it's like here I'm
Speaker 4: looking at I'm like, God, this is a twenty one
Speaker 4: year old kid that just boat raced the field like
Speaker 4: one of the best fields in golf and I couldn't.
Speaker 4: That's when I became like a huge Sea Woo Kim
Speaker 4: fan was because like of the reaction and it's like,
Speaker 4: that's not right. And it's something I think that gets
Speaker 4: so overlooked so often with with these young players from
Speaker 4: foreign countries, is the idea of a DECKI coming over here,
Speaker 4: living out of a suitcase for so many years of
Speaker 4: his life when he was in his young twenties, not
Speaker 4: being able to communicate with anybody. It's like if you
Speaker 4: threw these young Americans like say you're John Aginstein's or
Speaker 4: even like you're will Zel Torus over and said go
Speaker 4: play the Asian Tour, I bet.
Speaker 3: They would struggle.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, definitely, You're a fish out of water.
Speaker 4: And I think that that adds layers to you know,
Speaker 4: these guys' stories on how they come to be, you know,
Speaker 4: a Master's champion. It took a little bit longer than
Speaker 4: a lot of people would have expected. A lot of people,
Speaker 4: you know, would have thought it. But you know, this
Speaker 4: is the journey of a professional golfer, and I think,
Speaker 4: you know, with Hideki, it'll be really interesting to see
Speaker 4: what happens from here because you know, you can tell
Speaker 4: that there was a lot of pressure associated with being
Speaker 4: Japan's great hope. And now that he's accomplished this, does
Speaker 4: it go? Do we see more wins? Do we see
Speaker 4: him in contention more often? Or is this just kind
Speaker 4: of the way it's gonna be. So my question to
Speaker 4: you would be, like, on you're over under, is this
Speaker 4: gonna be a guy that gets more than one major?
Speaker 1: Is it?
Speaker 4: I think that's where I would say it. Is it
Speaker 4: two majors or more? Or or is it gonna be
Speaker 4: one major career?
Speaker 2: It's so majors or so hard because they're so weird
Speaker 2: and there's so few of them, I so few, I
Speaker 2: would think I would guess another one because of the
Speaker 2: iron play. And I mean even his worst years, he
Speaker 2: was a great iron player, so I could see it.
Speaker 2: But also so I mean, there's great you know, there's
Speaker 2: great players who only have one and then there's not
Speaker 2: as great player as I have two, I would guess more.
Speaker 2: I would go more. I think two. You know, if
Speaker 2: he struggled to close them out before, like maybe he
Speaker 2: did because he's runner up at the US Open Aaron
Speaker 2: Hills as well, and if you struggled to close him out.
Speaker 2: I mean, once you do win one, I think that
Speaker 2: helps with those struggles because you've done it before.
Speaker 4: That's one of the things with Hideki that I found
Speaker 4: really interesting, goes how good his record is when he
Speaker 4: has lead.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like he it's just getting there.
Speaker 2: And what I mean, what's that? What's a good players
Speaker 2: win percent? If you win five percent of the time, probably.
Speaker 3: Ten percent all time, er like that's I think Phill's
Speaker 3: ten percent.
Speaker 2: So he's twenty nine, he'll be competitive. Let's just say
Speaker 2: twenty more years, which would be not he probably won't
Speaker 2: be competitive for the end of it, but that's twenty years.
Speaker 2: That's eighty majors. Well, and let's say his webercentage is
Speaker 2: five percent, be kno getting half more because of the
Speaker 2: strength of field. I don't know. I I think he'll
Speaker 2: win another one, but I don't know. There's only four year.
Speaker 2: That's my go to where I get this question. Only
Speaker 2: four a year, probably GI him one more just times
Speaker 2: on his side, I think he's obviously a world class player,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 4: The one sneaky thing with Hideki also that I just
Speaker 4: thought of. And I don't know where he stands, but
Speaker 4: Sergio's you know, most Majors played consecutively streak ended last
Speaker 4: year when he had the COVID test at the Masters.
Speaker 4: I don't know what Haideki's where he stands, but he
Speaker 4: hasn't missed a major since twenty thirteen Masters. Yeah, and
Speaker 4: I don't see him missing of major for a long time.
Speaker 2: Well, and he's already played ten majors at age twenty nine.
Speaker 2: I mean, if he keeps going, you know, he could
Speaker 2: challenge you know, I think Gary players record for most Masters's.
Speaker 3: That's the thing.
Speaker 4: So like it in terms of opportunities, He's been extremely
Speaker 4: healthy over his career, and like I don't, like you
Speaker 4: look at his golf swing, it doesn't seem like his
Speaker 4: is one where we're gonna see a physical breakdown like
Speaker 4: adjacent day where you know, like Jason Day, He's still
Speaker 4: out there competing. But he even admittedly says he can't
Speaker 4: go the way he like to go at it. His
Speaker 4: golf swing, his body type seem like. This is something
Speaker 4: that Jeff Ogilvie has talked about a little bit on
Speaker 4: the podcast, is like body types. He's got that body
Speaker 4: type of the iconic players, like the longevity. You know,
Speaker 4: when you look at the players with the most longevity,
Speaker 4: they all have kind of a soft upper body with
Speaker 4: a bigger lower body, and that's hit Deecki's body type
Speaker 4: to t So you think about longevity wise, like his
Speaker 4: best golf might be ahead of him in the next
Speaker 4: five to ten years. This is not a you know, oh,
Speaker 4: we're glad he got one kind of situation.
Speaker 2: I think I could see him holding up. But at
Speaker 2: the same time, especially I don't know how much he
Speaker 2: flies back to Japan, but it's a lot of a
Speaker 2: lot of flights guble player. I think it's hard. I
Speaker 2: mean he goes out, he does go out of pretty hard.
Speaker 2: I think he seems to have some resistance in the
Speaker 2: lower and upper body, which and I would say would
Speaker 2: make a more injury prone just because how slowly he
Speaker 2: kind of takes it back. You know, He's not like
Speaker 2: a Matthew Wolf or something.
Speaker 4: That body type though, man I once Jeff mentioned that
Speaker 4: on the pod. I never can forget it. And he's
Speaker 4: one that falls right into the bucket like Ernie Els.
Speaker 4: You think about player like Phil Ratief Goosen has had
Speaker 4: great longevity, Ben Hogan, you know, he had a kind
Speaker 4: of similar body type. Jack Nicholas, all these guys had
Speaker 4: very similar body types the way a DECKI is, this
Speaker 4: is what the people want.
Speaker 3: They want body type discussion.
Speaker 2: I just wonder too, how we'll play. I mean I
Speaker 2: heard someone mentioned that this could be worth a billion
Speaker 2: dollars to him and in like endorsements and opportunities, and
Speaker 2: I mean, honestly, it sounds crazy. But if you're the
Speaker 2: one Master's Champion from Japan, I mean, now, Grant, I
Speaker 2: don't know that he wants to cash in, So I
Speaker 2: think that will put that will shorten his career a bit,
Speaker 2: because at some point you're like, look, I'm done deal
Speaker 2: with this stuff. I'm out here. So I think that
Speaker 2: might be the bigger maybe not threat to his career,
Speaker 2: but the thing that causes it to end earlier than
Speaker 2: the injuries. Maybe how many career wins so his six
Speaker 2: career wins now is twenty nine? What we put them
Speaker 2: out for career wins.
Speaker 4: I mean career wins. Let's let's be fair to the
Speaker 4: global player. He's got fifteen career wins, okay, now, just
Speaker 4: a lot of those coming in the Japan tour. But
Speaker 4: I'd say I think, I mean, I think he could
Speaker 4: get to fifteen wins.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Now is he also? Is he a Hall of
Speaker 2: Fame lock? Solely for the fact that he's the first
Speaker 2: major champion from Japan? I guess, I mean why Yang wasn't,
Speaker 2: But I mean Wazi Almo's career when he was longer.
Speaker 2: Is he a Hall of Famer?
Speaker 4: Well, I mean you look at global winds too. Like
Speaker 4: with him, I think it's important. He's got fifteen wins,
Speaker 4: you know, fifteen wins in a major obviously by he's
Speaker 4: twenty nine. So like, let's say on the low end,
Speaker 4: he gets to twenty world wide wins with a major,
Speaker 4: you got to be a Hall of famer, right, yep,
Speaker 4: all right, I'll.
Speaker 2: Let you go.
Speaker 4: But Sean, hey, thanks so much for coming on to
Speaker 4: talk about Hideki. Well we'll chat soon, probably catch up
Speaker 4: about the next few months of golf, but thanks and
Speaker 4: in great coverage this week at the Masters.
Speaker 2: Sounds good.
Speaker 1: Thanks man, all right, thanks for listening to another edition
Speaker 1: of the Friday Podcast. This episode was edited by Meg
Speaker 1: Atkins and Garrett Morrison, and I just wanted a quick reminder.
Speaker 1: We've got a couple events that are going live on Friday.
Speaker 3: This Friday.
Speaker 1: We have the Big Muddy at Davenport as well as
Speaker 1: the Jagger Jagger is Seth Rayner's middle name at Blue
Speaker 1: Mount Golf and Country Club up in Milwaukee. So a
Speaker 1: couple of Midwest events that are going on. Registrations are
Speaker 1: going live this week on Friday. You can get in
Speaker 1: on all the action by visiting the Friday dot com
Speaker 1: and going to our events page. These I expect to
Speaker 1: fill up pretty quick. If you want to play, if
Speaker 1: you want to come alone, come with some buddies. We
Speaker 1: got a lot of people that do both of those.
Speaker 1: Be ready to sign up on Friday. So thank you
Speaker 1: very much for listening, and another Master's Weeks in the Books.