Getty Image / James Gilbert
The 2021 Masters champion, Hideki Matsuyama, won a bronze medal for Japan at the Paris Olympics and currently sits 8th in the FedEx Cup standings as the players enter the first tournament of the FedEx Cup Playoffs but Hideki, unfortunately, faced a major setback on his way from Paris to Memphis for the St. Jude Championship.
While stopping over in London after Paris, Hideki Matsuyama, his caddie Shota Hayato, and his golf coach Mikihito Kuromiya were all robbed. The robbers stole Hideki’s wallet but thankfully for him they didn’t steal his bronze medal from the Paris Olympics or his Japanese passport but the same cannot be said for Hideki’s support staff.
Caddie Shota Hayato and golf coach Mikihito Kuromiya both had their Japanese passports stolen during the stopover in London on the way to the FedEx Cup Playoffs according to Golf Digest Japan who was first to report the news on Wednesday. Hideki has made it safely to Memphis but he now faces an uphill battle without his normal support staff around him.
In the report, Hideki said “There’s a chance they’ll make it, but we have to go into it thinking it’s close to zero.”
Matsuyama has a major leg up going into the FedEx Cup Playoffs due to currently sitting 8th in points. But his advantage can quickly be erased between now and East Lake GC. The first event will feature the top 70 golfers, then the second will feature the top 50, and the Tour Championship at East Lake GC in Atlanta, will feature the top 30 in FedEx Cup points.
Winners of the first two FedEx Cup Playoffs events will receive 2,000 points. Scottie Scheffler already has a nearly 2,000 point lead over 2nd place Xander Schauffele so Scottie will be hard to catch and that matters because the players are staggered for the Tour Championship based on their points standings.
The PGA Tour explains it by saying “The FedExCup points leader after the first two Playoffs events will begin the TOUR Championship at 10-under par. The No. 2 player will start at 8-under. The No. 3 player starts at 7-under; the No. 4 player starts at 6-under; the No. 5 player starts at 5-under. Players 6-10 start at 4-under; players 11-15 start at 3-under; players 16-20 start at 2-under; players 21-25 start at 1-under; and players 26-30 start at even par.”
If Hideki Matsuyama holds onto his 8th place standing for the next few weeks he’ll start at 4-under par for the Tour Championship with a whopping $25 million to the winner.
Hideki’s support team of his caddie and coach have paperwork in for expedited passport replacements so we can only hope for his sake that they’ll make it soon.