History, without (much) drama

 You had to give Hideki Matsuyama a pass Sunday, because he'd never been this way before. That green jacket must come with suffering, see, or it loses something in its winning. You have to let Augusta box your ears a few times, or draw a little blood, to truly appreciate that trip to the Butler Cabin and the subsequent wardrobe change.

And so Matsuyama came to Sunday at the Masters with a four-shot lead, and for a long time he acted as if it was Sunday at the Al's Body Shop Velveeta Open instead. He pushed his tee shot on the first hole into the wilderness and took bogey, but after that he just kind of cruised along as if he'd been here before, which of course neither he nor any Japanese golfer ever had been.

Finally he had a five-stroke lead and was cruising -- which is not the proper etiquette in a place where etiquette is almost comically observed. 

But give him credit, as well as a pass. He recovered nicely.

Just when it seemed this Sunday back nine at the Masters would have all the drama of a man eating a sandwich, Matsuyama dunked one in the water at 15. Then he came weaving home with a 73 to win by a much more traditional single stroke over Will Zalatoris.

That looked closer than it actually was, but, again, it was history, Matsuyama becoming not only the first Japanese winner of the Masters but also the first male golfer from his homeland ever to win a major. This is a huge deal in Japan, a golf-obsessed nation in which Matsuyama is himself a huge deal. And it opened a window on how differently certain athletes are perceived in their home countries than elsewhere.

Japan, for instance.

It's been a big year for the Japanese, and not just because of what happened Sunday. Last August, after all, Takuma Sato won the Indianapolis 500 for the second time in three years. When he won it the first time in 2017, he became the first Japanese -- first Asian -- ever to win motorsports' most iconic event.

And, like, Matsuyama, he is a much bigger deal in Japan than he is everywhere else.

Sato, in fact, is an icon himself in his native land. If he's never gotten the credit he  deserves as a racer in  America, in Japan he's gotten it in spades. There, he's treated like the two-time Indy winner he is.

Ditto Matsuyama, who's come close to winning a major before and seems to spend an inordinate amount of time hanging around in the upper reaches of the leaderboard. Do that, and eventually your ship will come in.

Consider Sunday his arrival at the dock.