📍Matsuyama, Ehime, Japan
1992 – 2007“Hideki Matsuyama was born in February 1992 in Matsuyama, the castle city on the island of Shikoku that shares his family name, famous for its hilltop castle and the ancient Dōgo hot springs. His father, Mikio, a former club champion and scratch golfer, introduced him to golf at four, taught him the fundamentals and remained his only coach. Father and son spent hours together at a local driving range, which Mikio later bought and renamed the Hideki Golf Garden, saying it was the place that raised his son. He was a quiet, serious and determined boy who practised relentlessly, absorbing his father's simple, repeatable methods. In his second year of junior high school, seeking better golf facilities, he moved across Shikoku to Kōchi to attend Meitoku Gijuku, a private school famous for its sports programmes, where he lived in a dormitory and trained every day. He won national junior titles and was soon recognised as one of Japan's most promising amateurs. He went on to Tohoku Fukushi University in Sendai, where he won the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in 2010 and 2011, earning invitations to the Masters; in 2011, weeks after the earthquake and tsunami devastated the region around his university, he was the leading amateur at Augusta. He turned professional in 2013, and in 2021 he became the first Japanese man to win a major championship, the Masters, a historic moment celebrated across Japan and in his home city of Matsuyama.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today