News about Hideki Matsuyama

Viewership for the final round of The Masters reportedly dropped by 20 per cent on last year as golf continues to battle declining TV audiences. According to Sports Business Journal, CBS drew 9.59million viewers for Sunday's final round, when Scottie Scheffler coasted to a four-shot victory at Augusta. That is down a fifth on 2023, when Jon Rahm landed his first green jacket before defecting to the Saudi-funded LIV Golf. 

The most exclusive dinner in all of golf takes place on Tuesday and the only way to gain entry is a Green Jacket. The first Masters dinner was arranged by Ben Hogan in 1952 following his win the previous year and it has become a chance to 'reminisce, swap banter and relax'. It has since become a rite of passage for the reigning champion to select and pay for the menu and previous winners have served up a range of dishes from the delicious, to the bland, to the bizarre. This year is the turn of Spaniard Jon Rahm, who will be hoping his Iberian-themed menu of tapas and pintxos and Basque rib-eye will live up to the mouthwatering standards of his predecessors. Here, Mail Sport takes a look at some of the best - and worst - champions dinners.

Hideki Matsuyama roared to victory at the Genesis Invitational at the Riviera Country Club on Sunday after a nine-under par 62 in Sunday's final round. Tiger Woods hosted the tournament in California, but the 15-time major champion was forced to miss in the second round due to sickness. In his bogey-free final round, Matsuyama shot nine birds and finished three shots ahead of Will Zalatoris and Luke List. It's his ninth victory on the PGA Tour and first for two years.

The PGA Tour revealed on Wednesday that four of the world's best golfers have committed to the season-opening Sentry tournament, including one who will not have been permitted under the event's new rules. Viktor Hovland of Norway, the reigning FedEx Cup champion, is the current world No. 1. 1 January 4-7 at Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii, will feature Scottie Scheffler, Rickie Fowler, and Hideki Matsuyama of Japan. The Sentry Tournament of Champions was once an annual event, but it was limited to just Tour winners from the previous season.

The golfing gods have added to the excitement for the first round of the US Open at the Los Angeles Country Club this week, with PGA Tour faithful Rory McIlroy expected to compete alongside LIV defector Brooks Koepka. Former Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama will join the blockbuster trio in a celebrity-studded trio who will go out at 1:54 p.m., one of the day's final groups. Bryson Dechambeau plays alongside outspoken Englishman Tyrrell Hatton and Francesco Molinari, while Cam Smith and Matt Fitzpatrick will face Sam Mitchell, the third man in the LIV-PGA series.

According to Monahan, the tour was investing millions in its legal battle against Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, as well as increasing its own funds to discourage players from defecting to the competition circuit. The war against a Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund, according to him, was not sustainable against a Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund, which now has more than $600 billion in assets. The meeting took place two days after the PGA Tour's surprising announcement that it had formed a partnership with the DP World Tour and the Public Investment Fund.

Golfers who refused to defect to LIV Golf in exchange for large pay outs from the Saudi Public Investment Fund may be rewarded with equity shares in the Tour's merger with its competitor. Jimmy Dunne, a Tour board member, told ESPN on Friday that the plan would not be extended to LIV Golf players but not to the top of the PGA rankings. Several top golfers, including Hideki Matsuyama, Patrick Cantlay, Jon Rahm, and Cameron Young, are reported to have turned down nine-figure bids from LIV Golf at the urging of the PGA.

How did the PGA Tour and LIV Golf go from such bitter rivals to business partners? The answer may have to do with the dissolved court struggle, which posed a threat to both Israel and Saudi Arabia. Here, DailyMail.com details the scandal surrounding the former-rivals-turned-business associates, as well as how the sport will be influenced by the alliance moving forward.

Bryson DeChambeau regrets the fact that PGA golfers who refused to send Saudi money to LIV Golf are now 'bad,' but the former US Open champion maintains that the new alliance, which is also 'good' for the game. 'I feel sorry for the PGA Tour players because they were told one thing and something else, and we were told one thing and it's come to fruition,' DeChambeau, who defected to LIV Golf for a reported $125 million in 2022, told CNN.

On the 18th green at Augusta on Sunday afternoon, Sam Bennett shed 'big, beautiful, big' tears, according to his mother Stacy. Bennett, 23, had blazed his way into Masters contention last week, and as the weather turned and one of the most fabled courses in golf revealed its teeth, he came home and made himself at home. He earned the roar and applause he received as he walked down that last fairway. It's a stroll that brings most golfers into a state of reflection, but Bennett may have taken a moment to look at the tattoo on his left wrist as he reflected on his achievement.

Sam Bennett, an American golfer, was given a hero's welcome as he returned to Texas A&M from placing tied-16th at The Masters in Augusta. The 23-year-old was one of the week's best news as he shocked the world to put himself in contention for a major title, despite sitting in third place going into the weekend. He fell in the rankings between Saturday and Sunday to finish 16th overall, but it was also a huge achievement for a player so inexperienced, and he was welcomed back to Texas with open arms on Monday morning.

Sam Bennett, an American, finished 16th in his first Masters tournament as he claimed the Silver Cup for lowest-scoring amateur, but he would not receive any money. After being ranked seventh at four-under par, the 23-year-old college golfer starred at Augusta National this week. He fell down the leaderboard in the final round, 74 to finish second-over. Jon Rahm won The Masters after the Spaniard blitzed LIV rival Brooks Koepka in the final round to win by four shots.

Will Zalatoris be the first golfer to withdraw from the first major championship of the year? Hideki Matsuyama, 26, had been close to winning The Masters two years ago before being defeated by one shot by Hideki Matsuyama, but he had to cancel due to injury ahead of his first round. Kevin Naya was forced to withdraw from the tournament midway through his first round at Augusta National on Thursday, just after.

In April, Scottie Scheffler (inset) will partake in the most prestigious rite of passage in golf. Scheffler, who won the 2022 Masters in Augusta, now has the opportunity to host the Masters Champion dinner (right). It's one of the most exclusive events in sport, with only the 54 previous Green Jacket holders accepted. The World No. 1 has revealed his menu (left) for the popular dinner on April 4, which will be the first since the establishment of the notorious breakaway LIV Golf brand, with many LIV members expected to attend. And Texan Scheffler, with the assistance of his wife Meredith, has planned a traditional Southern-style banquet that will have attendees licking their lips.

Jon Rahm continued to explain why he is the world No. 1 in the world. 1: At the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Florida, where he posted a seven-under-par 65 to take the lead by two shots. Rahm finished his round eagle-birdie on the par-4 15th hole at Bay Hill Club & Lodge, defeating a trio of players in the clubhouse at 5-under 67. That one on 15 was huge.' Rahm said I had my worst swing of the day and ended up with 30 feet for par.'

The plan was for two of the most reliable American teams to set the tone in the Presidents Cup on Thursday, and the end was predictable. In the first match, Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay made short work of Adam Scott and Hideki Matsuyama. They didn't make a bogey in a 6-and-5 victory, raising their record to 5-0 in foursomes at the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup. Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, the best friends since they were 14, had a couple of good shots to atone for their mistakes, but they didn't get a shot at Sungjae Im and Corey Conners, 2 and 1.

The last Presidents Cup was so close that the International Team left with a renewed sense of optimism, but it seems a long way away now, especially in the shadow cast over North Carolina this week. LIV Golf has been dominating the headlines in the buildup to the showdown at Quail Hollow, just like it has every tournament this year, and, honestly, how could it not? The Presidents Cup is the first major team competition in the men's game since the insurgent series made its way into the scene in June. However, the Presidents Cup gives a bit more energy than LIV's team's, which is limited to two scores from a team of four to count towards the final result. After all, it's match play - whatever comes.

On Tuesday, Trevor Immelman used five of five captain's picks on Presidents Cup rookies to round out his International team, which had been unable to prosper by defections to Saudi-funded LIV Golf. The challenge of beating the Americans, who have lost only one time since the Presidents Cup started in 1994, doesn't seem to be any simpler. Immelman hasn't decided on a 12-man squad for the September 22-25 games at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. Five players from the 2019 squad that nearly defeated the Americans at Royal Melbourne are now with LIV Golf and are no longer eligible.

The Japanese star had long been linked to the Saudi breakaway, and LIV Golf's big coup would have been a major coup for the Japanese star. But LIV Golf skipped out on the big win when the 2021 Masters champion reportedly renounced a significant paycheck in order to remain faithful to the PGA Tour. Matsuyama, the current world No. 301, comes to an end after the Tour's season with the playoffs finale on Sunday. After winning money from the FedEx Cup, 16 declared that he was not intending to flee.

On Wednesday, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan (bottom right) reported a minimum salary for all players and a new average purse of $20 million to keep up with LIV. At the inaugural function in St Albans, London, and captaining his team, the Majesticks, at the second and third events of the series, former Ryder Cup winnero Westwood (left) was one of the first to leave the rebel tour, teeling it up. The former World No. 1 is a writer who writes about the United Kingdom. As he branded his old tour a copycat of his current one and slammed his former colleagues (pictured top Tiger Woods, left) and Rory McIroy, right) 'hypocrites', he has now slammed the PGA Tour's changes.

Will Zalatoris is out of the Tour Championship and the President's Cup after winning his first PGA Tour victory. Zalatoris was the No. 1 in the United States. Three seed goes into the FedEx Cup finale and the competition for the $18 million grand prize, which means he will have started three shots off the lead. With his release, the field was reduced to 29 players, but everyone remains on their seeding and how far behind they are on Thursday at East Lake behind Scottie Scheffler. The injury is severe enough that Zalatoris has already ruled out of the Presidents Cup, and Quail Hollow in North Carolina has been scheduled for September 22-25.

Tiger Woods (second left) and Rory McIlroy (left) all attended the crunch meeting, and Rory McIlroy (left) have been revealed. Last week, many of the PGA Tour's top stars gathered in Delaware to discuss the fight against the Saudi-backed LIV Golf challenge. According to reports, the list includes 20 of the world's top 30-ranked players and ten Major champions, as well as 15-time champions Joe Woods. The likes of World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick, Patrick Cantlay, who defended his BMW Championship title last week, and 2021 British Open champion Collin Morikawa all turned up. Cameron Smith (top right) and Hideki Matsuyma (bottom right) were both missing.

Cameron Smith (left), the Australian golf superstar, is expected to be unveiled alongside a slew of other major names by Greg Norman's LIV Golf, but not before he faces a potential $26 million payout from the PGA Tour. Smith's defection hasn't affected Tiger Woods (top right) and Rory McIlory (bottom right)'s attempts to ensure the PGA Tour is still the best league in the world.