Japanese golfer Hideki Matsuyama was horrifyingly robbed during a layover in London - as he and his coach enjoyed dinner to celebrate his Olympic bronze medal.
The trio was out to dinner at an upscale restaurant in downtown London when they discovered all of their bags were missing. The golfer , 32, revealed that his 2024 Olympic bronze medal was not stolen, nor was his passport. However, his wallet was taken. "Yeah, [the thief] just took it and ran," Matsuyama said .
His caddie, Shota Hayato, and his coach, Mikihito Kuromiya, were not so lucky: both of their passports were in their bags. They will both have to return to their native Japan to sort out proceedings.
“We didn't even know it happened,” Matsuyama said through an interpreter. “We were just having a friendly dinner, and Shota was the first one – Hey, where is my bag? Of course it was frustrating, but we really didn't know it happened. It was just kind of all of a sudden."
“It was an unfortunate situation. Luckily, I only lost my wallet, but Shota, my caddie, and my coach, lost their passports, and we're trying hard now to get their visas back in line, and hopefully they can join us as a team as soon as possible.”
It's unclear whether Matsuyama's coach and caddie will be able to join him in what will be one of the most crucial stretches of the 2024 PGA season .
Matsuyama, currently ranked eighth in the 2024 FedEx Cup standings , has emerged as one of the sport's most talented golfers in recent years. The 2021 Masters Champion has nine PGA wins to his name and 10 major top-10 finishes over a 13-year career.
He has to play the FedEx St Jude Championship with backup caddie Taiga Tabuchi, who usually works for Ryo Hisatune. Matsuyama currently ranks third on the leaderboard at TPC Southwind in an event currently ongoing.
"Kind of reminded me of the first time Shota was on my bag,” Matsuyama said of the caddie change. “We kind of worked through a couple things. Really that was the main thing today is having teamwork with my caddie. Playing well, and I don't know how Shota is going to take it, but we'll work that out.”
He was asked whether his coach and caddie would be able to make it to next week's BMW Championship in Colorado: “There’s a chance they’ll make it, but we have to go into it thinking it’s close to zero,” Matsuyama told Golf Digest Japan.
Matsuyama will certainly want his trusted caddie with him for the PGA Tour Championship in two weeks: "Shota will make it, I think but my coach probably won't.”
The Japanese golfer currently ranks 12th in the official World Golf Rankings (WGR), in between Tommy Fleetwood and Sahith Theegala. He's ranked as high as second, which was back in 2017
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