AUGUSTA, Ga. — Japan has its first ever green jacket and, for that matter, its first ever men's major championship.
On Sunday, Hideki Matsuyama, blazing a trail started by the likes of Jumbo Ozaki and Isao Aoki and Tommy Nakajima before him, ended the Japanese drought, winning the Masters.
Slipping on the green jacket has been a decade in the making for Matsuyama, who ever since winning low amateur here at Augusta in 2011 has carried the golfing hopes of a nation on his shoulders. It's a pressure that Matsuyama cannot avoid, or at least not during normal times.