PGA star playing without caddie, coach after their visas were stolen

Hideki Matsuyama won a bronze medal at the Olympics in Paris. He then had his wallet stolen during a layover in London.

Matsuyama told Japanese reporters, including those at Golf Digest Japan, that someone swiped his wallet and also nabbed the passports and visas of his caddie, Shota Hayato, and coach, Mikihito Kuromiya. They had no choice but to return to Japan and request expedited travel documents instead of going to Memphis for the first leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. The top 50 in the season-long points race qualify for the second leg, the BMW Championship at Castle Pines in Denver.

‘There’s a chance they’ll make it (to Colorado), but we have to go into it thinking it’s close to zero,’ Matsuyama told Golf Digest Japan.

According to the report, the earliest they could make it to the U.S. would be just ahead of the Tour Championship in two weeks.

“I’m going to play golf as if I went back to the way I was before I had a coach,’ Matsuyama told the Japanese press in Memphis. ‘I feel like all the responsibility is on me.’

Matsuyama has hired Taiga Tabuchi, who caddies for fellow Japanese tour pro Ryo Hisatsune, to fill in as a caddie in the absence of Hayato, who famously bowed on the 18th green after his boss won the Masters in 2021.

‘I’m glad he accepted,’ said Matsuyama of Tabuchi, whose regular boss finished a career-best T-3 last week but fell short of the top 70 and a berth in the playoffs. ‘He’s worked with Hisatsune this year, so I think he knows the ropes, and he can speak English, so I can rely on him.’

Matsuyama, who won the Genesis Invitational in February, enters the FedEx Cup Playoffs in eighth place. He did note that the bronze medal remained safely in his possession.