PGA Tour 2024: Professional golfer Hideki Matsuyama robbed at London airport while travelling to event from Olympic Games

The Japanese golfer won the bronze medal in men's stroke play at the Olympics last weekend. Mastuyama's team of caddie Shota Hayato and coach Mikihito Kuromiya were also robbed during the incident in London. 

They were traveling to a PGA Tour event in Memphis after the Olympic Games. Matsuyama's passport was stolen, along with the passports from each member of his team, forcing them to return to Japan to get them reissued before returning to the golf circuit, per Golf Digest Japan. His medal was not stolen. 

“There’s a chance they’ll make it [to Colorado], but we have to go into it thinking it’s close to zero,” Matsuyama told Golf Digest Japan. According to the report, the earliest they could make it to the U.S. would be just ahead of the Tour Championship in two weeks.

“I’m going to play golf as if I went back to the way I was before I had a coach,” Matsuyama told the Japanese press in Memphis. “I feel like all the responsibility is on me.” He has hired Taiga Tabuchi, who caddies for fellow Japanese tour pro Ryo Hisatsune, to fill in as a caddie in the absence of Hayato.

Matsuyama is the biggest Japanese star in golf and won his only major at the 2021 Masters. He noted that the bronze medal remained safely in his possession.