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| - Hideki Matsuyama reached the back nine in Sunday's tension-packed final round of the 85th Masters with a five-stroke lead as he tries to become the first Japanese man to win a major golf title. Matsuyama, who began the day with a four-stroke lead at windy Augusta National, grinded out pars as rivals stumbled and added back-to-back birdies to close the front nine with American Will Zalatoris the only rival less than seven shots back. World number 25 Matsuyama was chasing the champion's green jacket and a $2.07 million (1.74 million euros) winner's prize as will as a place in Japanese history. Matsuyama sent his opening tee shot well right into trees, punched out off pine straw short of the green, then pitched on and just missed a 25-foot par putt. At the par-5 second, Matsuyama found a greenside bunker but blasted out and tapped in for birdie to return to 11-under overall. Matsuyama saved par at the fifth on a 20-foot par putt. He missed a three-foot birdie putt at the seventh but responded by making three footers to birdie the par-5 eighth and par-4 ninth and reach 13-under. Zalatoris, trying to be the first player to win the Masters in his debut since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979, opened birdie-birdie but missed a five-foot par putt at the third. A 14-foot birdie putt at the eighth lifted Zalatoris but he stumbled back to 8-under with a bogey at the 10th. Spain's third-ranked Jon Rahm, who fired level par in each of the first three rounds, fired a six-under par 66 to seize the clubhouse lead at six-under 282. Rahm, a new father who arrived only on the eve of the event, had a birdie-eagle start and birdies at the par-5 eighth, par-3 12th and par-5 15th but was still seven back of Matsuyama, sharing third with American Xander Schauffele. A typical Sunday set-up at Augusta National offered back-nine scoring opportunities for challengers in windy conditions and a tension-packed risk and reward test like few other courses in the world. Back-nine runs of four consecutive birdies by England's Paul Casey and Tyrell Hatton showed the low scoring on offer over the closing holes. "Maybe one of the best set-ups we've seen in years and years," Casey said. "It's got everything today." One after another, Matsuyama's other rivals fell back on the front nine. England's Justin Rose, the 2013 US Open champion, had three bogeys in the first five holes while Australia's Marc Leishman made three bogeys in the first seven and US three-time major winner Jordan Spieth had three bogeys in the first six holes. Schauffele had back-to-back bogeys just before a double bogey at the fifth while Canada's Corey Conners had back-to-back bogeys before a double bogey at the seventh. Japan's Chako Higuchi won the 1977 LPGA Championship and Hinako Shibuno won the 2019 Women's British Open but the best majors by Japanese men were Isao Aoki's runner-up effort at the 1980 US Open and Matsuyama's share of second at the 2017 US Open. Matsuyama, 29, could become only the second Asian man to win a major title after South Korea's Yang Yong-eun at the 2009 PGA Championship. Matsuyama hasn't won since the 2017 WGC Akron tournament, but 87 US PGA starts later, he will try to match the triumph from his only other 54-hole outright tour lead, at WGC Shanghai in 2016. Of the last 30 Masters champions, 25 of them came from the final Sunday pairing, which this week had Matsuyama joined by sixth-ranked Schauffele for a second straight day. Schauffele has had eight runner-up finishes since last winning in January 2019 at the US PGA Tournament of Champions, including a share of second behind Tiger Woods at the 2019 Masters. Leishman, whose lost a playoff at the 2015 British Open, hopes to improve on his top Masters finish of fourth in 2013. js/rcw
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