AUGUSTA: Hideki Matsuyama won the 85th Masters in dramatic fashion on Sunday, holding off Xander Schauffele down the back nine to become the first Japanese man to capture a major golf title.
Carrying the hopes of a nation on his shoulders, Matsuyama calmly grinded out clutch pars and struck for crucial birdies in a pressure-packed march at Augusta National, hanging on over the final holes for a historic one-stroke victory.
Matsuyama took the green jacket symbolic of Masters supremacy, a top prize of $2.07 million and a place for the ages in Japanese sports history.
“I’m really happy,” he said through a translator. “Hopefully I’ll be a pioneer in this and many other Japanese will…