Matsuyama forging a following

When Hideki Matsuyama began play at last year's World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions, he was just another good, young player - a talented 20-something looking for a breakout performance.

By the end of that week at Sheshan Golf Club in Shanghai, Matsuyama was truly Asia's rising star, emerging as an international force.

Matsuyama followed his 7-stroke victory in Shanghai with two more titles on the PGA Tour last season and finished first in the FedExCup's regular-season standings.

Today, he is the world No 3.

Although he has yet to taste team victory, Matsuyama has also become a stalwart in the biennial Presidents Cup tournament, and when pundits speak about the current greats of the game, his name is mentioned in the same breath as Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy.

That shouldn't be surprising. Since the HSBC Champions became a World Golf Championships event in 2009, the tournament has produced a roll call of exceptional winners from all corners of the globe.

Four of the eight are major champions and the others have been members of either a Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup team. Players from six different nations have won the event over the past eight years, making it truly an international showcase.

"It's great for the growth of the game; the tournament has been growing a lot in the last few years," said 2010 winner Francesco Molinari of Italy.

The top players in the game, led by Matsuyama and world No 1 Johnson, are again converging on Shanghai for what is already being hailed by players as "Asia's Major".

The Oct 26-29 tournament is the third of three straight PGA Tour events in Asia, following the CIMB Classic in Malaysia and the first-year CJ Cup in South Korea.

In addition to earning a three-year PGA Tour exemption, official World Golf Ranking points and $1.6 million in prize money, Matsuyama became the first player from Japan - and the first from Asia - to win a WGC event.

"To win the HSBC was probably my biggest achievement," Matsuyama said. "I was the first Asian to win that event, and to me that was a big deal."

The HSBC Champions was created in 2005 and became an official European Tour and Asian Tour event a year later. It achieved World Golf Championships status in 2009 and was added to the PGA Tour's FedExCup schedule in 2013.

"It says something about HSBC and it says something about this golf tournament," said Johnson, who won the title in 2013.

"They do a great job in Shanghai. I think you'll see more and more guys wanting to come to China to play."

(China Daily 10/22/2017 page12)