My Masters

Amateur Matsuyama Does Asia Proud

The recent announcement that the Masters Tournament is reviewing its qualification criteria (this year saw the largest field since 1966) might worry some of the amateur championships whose winner has traditionally been given a berth to tee it up alongside the pros at Augusta. But the Asian Amateur Championship, a tournament devised by the Masters in harness with the R&A, can probably exclude itself from this list – especially as Japan's Hideki Matsuyama, the 2010 champ, performed so admirably on his Augusta debut. We watched him playing several times over the course of the tournament and he handily outdrove his playing partners and displayed a masterly short game. Briefly appearing on the leaderboard on Sunday after getting to four-under-par, Matsuyama, a university student from the disaster-hit city of Sendai, did his suffering country – and all of Asia – proud by earning the Silver Cup, the prize for the lowest scoring amateur (he was the only amateur to make the 36-hole cut). Matsuyama finished in a tie for 27th, alongside Phil Mickelson, the 2010 Masters winner. The venue for the 2012 Asian Amateur Championship, which will include players from Hong Kong, will be announced soon.