There were some pretty big financial winners from the results of The Masters on Sunday with the biggest one of course being the new champion Hideki Matsuyama.
Japan is golf-crazed, even though things have died down in recent years. There is no country in the world that has that many golf courses (more than 3,000) in such a small area (146,000 square miles) and Matsuyama is immediately the most powerful athlete in Japan. Yes, unfortunately for Naomi Osaka, it's golf over tennis in the Land of the Rising Sun.
At the beginning of the day, ESPN's Andy North said that a win for Matsuyama would be worth more than $1 billion. That's a bit of a stretch. But it's probably not a stretch to think that this Green Jacket is worth more than $200 million over the rest of his lifetime.
Those who already pay for Matsuyama's services are the winners, though they'll have to pay even more — especially the Japanese brands.
The biggest winner is Japan's Sumitomo Rubber.
They own Srixon, whose clubs Matsuyama plays. Srixon has branding on his left chest, his hat and his right pant pocket. They own Cleveland Golf, which is on his hat and golf bag. They own his actual clothing, as a licensor of Descente, most famous in the U.S. as the makers of the 1984 US Olympics Basketball uniforms. They own his feet, thanks to a partnership Sumitomo did in 2019 that makes them the exclusive distributor of Asics golf shoes in the United States.
Then there's the car brand Lexus, owned by Japan's Toyota, which owns branding on his right chest and a part of his hat. Nomura, a Japanese banking giant, has a logo on his hat.
Other winners are Japan's golf courses and teaching pros and anyone associated with the game. This is potentially a seminal moment for a country that already has so much love for the game. And yes, as was talked about on CBS on Sunday, it most likely vaults Matsuyama into the discussion to light the Olympic flame this summer in Tokyo.
Other winners we can't forget about are the sportsbooks. What took us so long? They cleaned up today. They didn't have any crazy fears of Jordan Spieth, even though he made a nice run at the end. Matsuyama wasn't even that highly bet on Masters Sunday with a four-stroke lead and as low as -115 at PointsBet. For MGM, it was a seven-figure win, said spokesperson Elisa Richardson.
And finally, how about the kid, Will Zalatoris, and Arkansas-based SimmonsBank which signed Zalatoris, at undoubtedly pennies on the dollar last May. The value from the Simmons Bank logo on Zalatoris' shirt during the 4th round? About $2.5 million, according to Apex Marketing.
Talk about exposure time.
Zalatoris has Titleist and Footjoy, which don't usually allow for a Nascarization of the outfit, but there's definitely a few phone calls coming his agent's way on Monday.
Zalatoris walked away with $1.24 million on Sunday, a little bit less than his entire career earnings since June 2018.
