Jordan, Schmordan: Hideki Matsuyama Makes Prez Cup Debut

Jordan Spieth's first professional team competition will be analyzed to death, as it should for the impressive upstart and captain's pick.

But as Sean Martin notes, the International squad has a 21-year-old phenom in Hideki Matsuyama who has great finishes in the Masters and Open Championship on his resume and is every bit as talented.

Matsuyama's performance at some of the game's biggest tournaments confirms Maruyama's assessment. Matsuyama occasionally wears a logo depicting a cartoon penguin with half of an egg shell atop its head. It's the logo of the Tohoku Fukushi golf team; the head coach, Yasuhiko Abe, selected it because of penguins' patience and perseverance in trying conditions. He wants his team to display similar fortitude. Abe is a short, stocky man with a crew-cut haircut; he coached baseball before becoming Tohoku Fukushi's golf coach. He calls Matsuyama a “fighter” and a “bulldog.”

Said International Team Captain Nick Price, “He’s obviously got big-game temperament, no doubt. Playing the way he did at the U.S. Open and British Open as a rookie was simply amazing.”

Matsuyama will be tested in another big arena this week. He's the only player at the Presidents Cup who hasn’t previously completed at Muirfield Village.