'He Just Took It And Ran' - Hideki Matsuyama On London Robbery
Matsuyama lost his wallet while his caddie and coach both had their passports stolen in a London robbery following the Paris Olympics
![Hideki Matsuyama from the chest up during the FedEx St Jude Championship](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/dTyKosuoom8omH76umTJPc-415-80.jpg)
Hideki Matsuyama has detailed the robbery he and his team experienced in London that saw his caddie and coach both have their passports stolen.
The Japanese star says he was out in London during a stopover between Paris and Memphis when his caddie's bag was stolen at a restaurant.
It resulted in both his caddie and coach heading back to Japan to try and sort new passports, with his bagman Shota Hayafuji set to return to caddie duties in two weeks' time at the Tour Championship.
"It was an unfortunate situation. Luckily I only lost my wallet, but Shota, my caddie, and the coach, lost their passports, and we're trying hard now to get their visas back in line, and hopefully we can join us as a team as soon as possible," Matsuyama explained.
"We were just on our way back from Paris. We were just going to spend one night in London, and it happened in downtown London.
"We didn't even know it happened. 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.
"Yeah, he just took it and ran."
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Matsuyama has Ryo Hisatsune's usual caddie Taiga Tabuchi on the bag for this week's FedEx St Jude Championship, and he said he did a "great job" in their first round together, where the Olympic bronze medallist shot a five-under-par 65.
"I have a new caddie on the bag. Kind of reminded me of the first time Shota was on my bag. We kind of worked through a couple things," he said.
"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.
"My job is the same. It's just play golf. I talk to my coach every night on the phone. I've got a great caddie. Taiga did a great job today, so we'll just see how it goes."
Matsuyama currently ranks 8th in the FedEx Cup standings so is safe in the knowledge that he'll be at East Lake for the Tour Championship finale, where someone will lift the FedEx Cup and the $25m bonus.
Elliott Heath is our News Editor and has been with Golf Monthly since early 2016 after graduating with a degree in Sports Journalism. He manages the Golf Monthly news team as well as our large Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. He covered the 2022 Masters from Augusta National as well as five Open Championships on-site including the 150th at St Andrews. His first Open was in 2017 at Royal Birkdale, when he walked inside the ropes with Jordan Spieth during the Texan's memorable Claret Jug triumph. He has played 35 of our Top 100 golf courses, with his favourites being both Sunningdales, Woodhall Spa, Western Gailes, Old Head and Turnberry. He has been obsessed with the sport since the age of 8 and currently plays off of a six handicap. His golfing highlights are making albatross on the 9th hole on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa, shooting an under-par round, playing in the Aramco Team Series on the Ladies European Tour and making his one and only hole-in-one at the age of 15 - a long time ago now!
Elliott is currently playing:
Driver: Titleist TSR4
3 wood: Titleist TSi2
Hybrids: Titleist 816 H1
Irons: Mizuno MP5 5-PW
Wedges: Cleveland RTX ZipCore 50, 54, 58
Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #5
Ball: Srixon Z Star XV
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