Pressure on Matsuyama in WGC Shanghai defence

SHANGHAI: Defending champion Hideki Matsuyama admitted on Wednesday that he is under pressure to replicate the storming performance that propelled him to WGC-HSBC Champions glory in Shanghai one year ago.

The Japanese opens his defence of “Asia’s major” on Thursday alongside world number one Dustin Johnson of the United States and fast-rising Spaniard Jon Rahm.The trio are among the headline attractions of a star-studded field at the $9.75 million showpiece event at Sheshan International Golf Club.

Other leading contenders at the tournament, which is on the US PGA Tour and European Tour, include last year’s runner-up Henrik Stenson, Olympic champion Justin Rose and a clutch of current and former major winners in Phil Mickelson, Jason Day and Brooks Koepka.

The 25-year-old Matsuyama became the first Asian to win a World Golf Championship a year ago, and it was the catalyst for a brilliant run that also delivered the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational title in August.

Matsuyama and Johnson have a stranglehold on WGC events, splitting the last five between them — two for the Japanese and three to the American.“It is different coming back as defending champion,” said Matsuyama.

“I don’t want to put a lot of pressure or expectation on myself, I just want to let the tournament come to me, like it did last year.“All I can do is try to play my best and hopefully I will play well.”

Making Matsuyama’s task all the harder, he will also have to contend with a growing challenge from the home golfers.Prime among the Chinese who will hope to be in the mix on the final day on Sunday are Li Haotong, a rising talent who underlined his potential with an eye-catching third-place finish at the British Open in July.

Matsuyama said he believes Asian players still have a gap to close on the top American and European players, with the top three in the world all from the United States — Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas.And he said that having got close to the top of the world rankings, he now had a battle to stay there, particularly with the likes of the powerful Rahm coming up fast behind him.