Golfer Hideki Matsuyama became the first Japanese champion of a men’s major tournament Sunday at the Masters in Augusta, Georgia. The event is the first of the four professional major tournaments, every year. The others are the U.S. Open, the British Open and the PGA Championship. Over four days of play, Matsuyama finished one stroke better than Will Zalatoris, a Californian playing in the tournament for the first time. “It was really wonderful,” Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said of the Masters win. Japan is preparing to open the Tokyo Olympics in July, after COVID-19 forced a year-long postponement of the 2020 Summer Games. Matsuyama’s success, Suga said, “moved our hearts and gave us courage.” Japanese golfers have seen some international success. Two, Chako Higuchi and Hinako Shibuno, won championships of women’s majors in 1977 and 2019. The closest a Japanese player came to a men’s major win was Isao Aoki in 1980. He finished second to Jack Nicklaus at the U.S. Open that year. The Masters is the only one of the four men’s majors where there has been a winner from all continents where golf is played.