AUGUSTA, Ga. – The shepherd was wearing a white Masters hat, a short-sleeved shirt with a dark blue collar and pants, and he looked like a 68-year-old bank manager in your average golf gallery. But Bob Turner was not a well-connected fan who got a ticket to a pandemic-diminished Augusta national team on Sunday.
No, Turner was the most obvious American reason why Japan now has a major male champion for the first time.
He is much more than the performer of Hideki Matsuyama. Turner is his logistics man, transport man and tournament man. He is for the golfer what is a “body man” for a president of the United States. Turner is the one who helped Matsuyama be comfortable enough in a foreign country to win the Jack Nicklaus tournament in Ohio as a 22-year-old, become a five-time PGA Tour winner and make history in the country. his home win the most prestigious game tournament in the world in Georgia Pines.
More than anything, Turner is Hideki Matsuyama’s good friend. He was not alone with the champion during his interview in Butler Cabin or in the main media center. Turner was with him all week, on and off the course, as he had been for years, trying to direct his man to a magical moment that was almost 50 years in the making.
The journey began in 1972, when Turner, a student of Brigham Young and a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, embarked on a two-year mission to Japan. He met the woman who was to be his wife, returned to the United States, and then, after his wife, Hiroko, became homeless, he returned to Japan to finish his studies and play golf at Waseda University in Tokyo, which had one of the 10 nations. the best golf teams. He was the only American to play college golf in Japan, and one day a tournament manager asked him, “What the hell are you doing here?”
The man offered Turner a job in the golf industry and soon helped Seve Ballesteros, Sam Snead and Johnny Miller when they arrived in Japan. Back in the States, years later, Turner’s son, Allen, will work as a performer for Seattle Mariners stars Kazuhiro Sasaki and Ichiro Suzuki. Sasaki attended Matsuyama’s university, Tohoku Fukushi, who would compete in tournaments in Seattle. The school’s golf coach reportedly eventually asked Turner, who worked for his father, to help Matsuyama adjust to Augusta after 19-year-old Hideki qualified for the Masters in 2011, when finished as a low amateur.
“And here we are,” Bob Turner said on the first fairway on Sunday, hours before his friend got into a green jacket.
Turner looked a little stressed after Matsuyama fooled the No. 1 and turned his four-shot lead over Xander Schauffele into a three-shot lead. Just not too stressed. As he walked the course and spoke to two reporters, Turner compared Matsuyama’s passion to Ballesteros’. “Seve used to tell me, ‘Bob, I’m doing Sunday and packing and I can’t wait to get to the next tournament.’ ”
Turner told a story about Matsuyama’s first US Open at Merion in 2013, when he shot a final round 67 to finish 10th. It had been a long, wet and draining week at Merion, with serious logistical challenges. and Turner realized it was a blanket after his player cleaned his closet and headed to a parking lot near the training area.
Matsuyama told his interpreter that he wanted to hit some balls.
“You’re not tired?” Turner asked.
“Bob,” Matsuyama replied, “look at this beautiful range of practices. We can’t let it get lost. ”
Matsuyama beat for an hour. “I knew then that he was someone special,” Turner said.
It had to be special on Sunday to overcome the second shot in the 15th hole, where he had a four-stroke lead. Matsuyama beat his approach over the green and in the water and barely hurried to bogey while Schauffele made a bird to reduce the advantage to two.
Schauffele was the one who folded on the next hole, when he put his blow in the water on the way to a fatal triple bogey. Matsuyama missed the power of his hair, but in the end it didn’t matter. He won the hair on the 17th to keep his two-time advantage over Will Zalatoris, then turned to the bogey on the 18th to join Tsubasa Kajitani, the winner of the national women’s amateur Augusta, as Japanese champions for these reasons.
Turner’s work was just beginning then. The 68-year-old American, who has made lifelong friends with his Waseda teammates and still considers them brothers, decades later, had to lead his friend through a maze of media obligations. .
“I’m not a translator,” Turner explained. “I could translate word for word. I’m an interpreter. I hear what he says and then I try to say it like an American, or someone who speaks English, would say the same feeling. ”
Turner is proud to take his player’s temperature and match his cadence. “I think I’m processing her from here,” he said, pointing to his heart, “rather than from here,” he added, pointing to his head.
But before the start of the post-tournament proceedings, Hideki Matsuyama gave Bob Turner a warm hug behind the 18th green. No interpretation was required.