{"id":52512,"date":"2026-08-18T22:09:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T22:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/52512\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T22:09:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T22:09:07","slug":"hideki-matsuyama-caddie-out-for-season-with-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/52512\/","title":{"rendered":"Hideki Matsuyama caddie out for season with injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aug. 18, 2026, 5:00 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

Caddie Shota Hayafuji is out for the remainder of the FedEx Cup playoffs due to a herniated disk in his neck.Hayafuji, who gained fame for his bow at the 2021 Masters, is experiencing pain down his right shoulder and arm.Taiga Tabuchi will continue to fill in for Hayafuji on Hideki Matsuyama’s bag.Hayafuji is expected to miss the Presidents Cup and is targeting a return in October for the PGA Tour’s event in Japan.<\/p>\n

ST. LOUIS \u2013 Caddie\u00a0Shota Hayafuji\u00a0is out for the remainder of the FedEx Cup Playoffs<\/a> and beyond.<\/p>\n

Hayafuji \u2015 who has been on the bag of Hideki Matsuyama since 2019\u00a0and gained worldwide attention for his respectful bow to Augusta National after his boss became the first Japanese golfer to win the Masters in 2021 \u2015 is dealing with a herniated disk in his neck, Matsuyama’s longtime manager and interpreter, Bob Turner, confirmed.<\/p>\n

\"Hideki<\/p>\n

Taiga Tabuchi is taking over in his absence for Matsuyama. Hayafuji and Tabuchi had been splitting time for much of the season already due to Hayafuji\u2019s wife having a baby earlier this year.<\/p>\n

But Hayafuki’s neck injury means he will miss extended time. The pain has extended down his right shoulder and arm, Turner said. Hayafuji was supposed to return at the Wyndham Championship but he called Turner and informed him he couldn\u2019t even make a fist with his right hand.<\/p>\n

Matsuyama gave him the rest of the season off, Turner confirmed. That is expected to include the Presidents Cup<\/a> at Medinah No. 3 in Chicago. Matsuyama is a lock to make the International Team again.<\/p>\n

Explore how to live where you love to play Access community guides, golf real estate insights, trusted agent connections, and content built for passionate golfers.<\/a>More: Uniforms revealed for the 2026 Presidents Cup at Medinah Country Club<\/a>\"Hideki<\/p>\n

Turner said Hayafuji is targeting a return to Matsuyama’s bag at the Baycurrent Classic, the PGA Tour\u2019s lone event in Japan, which is part of the FedEx Cup<\/a> Fall series and will be held in October. Matsuyama previously won the tournament his homeland in 2021 when it was known as the Zozo Championship. Matsuyama likely will defend his title at the Hero World Challenge in The Bahamas in December.<\/p>\n

Matsuyama, 34, hasn\u2019t missed a beat without his trusted sidekick. He\u2019s reeled off six straight top-15 finishes: T-14 at the Travelers Championship; T-14 at the Open Championship; T-3 at the 3M open; T-5 at the Rocket Classic; T-7 at the Wyndham Championship; T-7 at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. He made the cut in all 20 of his regular-season starts in 2026.<\/p>\n

Matsuyama enters the BMW Championship<\/a> at 15th\u00a0in the season-long FedEx Cup standings, comfortably inside the top-30 cutoff to advance to next week’s season-ending Tour Championship.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Adam Schupak<\/a> is a senior writer for Golfweek, covering the PGA Tour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aug. 18, 2026, 5:00 p.m. ET Caddie Shota Hayafuji is out for the remainder of the FedEx Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[58,1271,59,1236,1237,16149,1302,65,68,5403,80,193,67,187,1243,4855,62],"class_list":["post-52512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-masters-tournament","tag-accessfree","tag-masters-tournament","tag-sourcegolfweek","tag-sstssportsgolfpga","tag-sstsnpga-tour","tag-tagbmw-championship","tag-tagfedex-cup","tag-taggolf","tag-taginternational-sports-competitions","tag-tagmasters-tournament-2027","tag-tagoverall-neutral","tag-tagpga-tour","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagstory-highlights-ai-enabled","tag-tagthe-open-championship","tag-tagthe-presidents-cup","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}