Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama was disqualified from the Memorial tournament on Thursday for using an irregular golf club, the PGA said in a statement. Matsuyama, winner of this tournament in 2014, was sanctioned for failing to comply with the regulation that prohibits players from placing substances in their golf clubs that could alter the normal impact with the ball.
Hideki Matsuyama, situation
The chief judge noted that players can make small marks with a marker for convenience in the game, but the stick used by Matsuyama exceeded the allowed limit. The Japanese did not know that his club was irregular and, when the judge approached him to ask for information on the second hole, he admitted that he had used it on the first, which caused his disqualification.
The tournament’s chief judge, Steve Rintoul, praised Matsuyama for being “very honest” with him. The Memorial tournament will be held until next Sunday at the Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. Hideki Matsuyama is a Japanese golfer, mainly active on the PGA Tour and Japan Golf Tour.
He is the first Japanese in the history of sport to win a men’s major, thanks to his triumph at the Masters 2021. Born in the city of Matsuyama, he began playing golf at the age of four under the guidance of his father.
He completes his education at Tōhoku Fukushi University in Sendai, winning the 2010 and 2011 editions of the Asian Amateur Golf Championships. This result qualifies him by right to the 2011 Masters [3] (the first Japanese amateur to do so), where he wins the Silver Cup and is the only amateur golfer in the competition.
The following week he finished third at the Japan Open Golf Championship, among the stages of the Japan Golf Tour. In 2011 he represented Japan at the 2011 Shenzhen Universiade, where he won gold in both individual and team competition – together with Fujimoto, Kobukuro and Tomimura.
After defending the title at the Asian Amateur Championships, he wins the Taiheiyo Masters, another stop on the Japan Golf Tour, in November. His success at an amateur level earned him position No. 1 in the world amateur ranking in August 2012.
