Started in 1952 when Ben Hogan invited all Masters champions to dinner, the group that formed is actually called the “Masters Club”, one of the most exclusive clubs in all of golf that anyone with a passing interest in the professional game would give almost anything to be a fly on the wall for its annual get-together.

For the first time, a Japanese player set the menu this year after Matsuyama won the country’s first men’s major in 2021, the 30-year-old serving up some tastes of his homeland to the collection of Masters winners, who also have the option each year to order of the normal menu.

Matsuyama’s menu included sushi, sashimi and Nigiri Yakitori chicken skewers as appetizers, miso glazed black god, Miyazaki wagyu and a Japanese strawberry shortcake for dessert.

Serving foods from one’s homeland is nothing new for the Champions Dinner, with Sandy Lyle famously dishing up haggis, Bernhard Langer opting for wiener schnitzel and our own Adam Scott introducing many of the Masters Club to pavlova.

And sushi has been on the menu before when Tiger Woods put it on the menu in 2020, having served cheeseburgers after his first win in 1997.

The current chairman of Augusta National, Fred Ridley, is the only non-Masters winner welcomed into the dinner, where older players hold court and two-time champion Ben Crenshaw acts as the Master of Ceremonies after he took over the role from the late Byron Nelson.

“I’m excited to shake his hand and say thank you,” Jordan Spieth said of Matsuyama after seeing the menu chosen by the 2021 winner. “I might have to be carted off.”

According to the Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis, Matsuyama wanted to go for a bolder menu before deciding something simpler might be better suited to the group of diverse backgrounds and tastes. The World No.12 also making a rare speech in English to the private room.