Hideki Matsuyama hit a fan with a fan in the head with a shanked drive, leading to the fan spending a day in the hospital, according to TMZ Sports. The incident happened at the 2021 Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas on the 16th hole this past Friday. Matsuyama hit a drive that went right the shot was so far from the fairway that landed into a fan’s head, knocking the guy to the ground.
The fan, whose name is Robert told TMZ Sports he felt “weird” and “totally disorientated.” While Robert was trying to recover, Matsuyama signed an autograph for him and apologize. He was sent to the hospital and needed six stitches to close the wound. PGA Tour officials have not reached out to Robert about the incident. But Robert has launched a GoFundMe page to help with his medical bills.
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“I was taken by Ambulance to Emergency room & received stitches & other medical treatment,” Robert wrote on the GoFundMe pgae. “Im expecting high medical bills & issues. I was enjoying myself at a PGA TOUR event when this happened. Nobody from the PGA ever contacted me to check in to see how i was doing. I would like to give Thanks to the bystanders that put pressure on my wound, they were true Angels.”
Matsuyama won the Masters earlier this year, which is his first major championship. He also became the first Japanese player and Asian-born player to win the tournament. For people who have followed Matsuyana his entire career, the Masters win is not a big surprise.
“I knew nothing about him,” Nobuhito Sato a former Japan Tour player-turned-commentator, told Yahoo Sports when talking about meeting Matsuyama. “But he was hitting them so good, and his iron shots sounded different from the others.” Sato also talked about the type of person Matsuyama is. “He’s pretty shy, but typical Japanese though,” Sato said. “Many of us Japanese are like him. It takes time to know what he is really like as a person.”
“People know that he’s a great golfer – probably the best Japanese golfer ever,” Sato added. “But since he keeps a lot of things secret, many people don’t know anything other than that.” Before the Masters, Matsuyama’s best finish in a major championship was the 2017 U.S. Open when he finished second.
