Collin Morikawa’s PGA Championship win is more proof that golf’s kids are the real deal
A couple hundred volunteers witnessed the two stunning shots that separated him late in the day from a hyper-bunched leaderboard — and both will be a very important part of the story. The first came at the 14th hole, after Morikawa had badly blocked his second shot — arguably his worst swing of the day — and had to pitch his third from in front of the green. He didn’t knock it close to save par; he knocked it in for a birdie that broke what was, at that moment, a seven-way tie for the lead.
Two holes later, on the drivable par-4 16th, he abandoned his week-long plan to avoid the risk of going for the green, took out his driver and hit his tee shot to within seven feet.
Morikawa then calmly rolled in the eagle putt, doing something great players in the past have often failed to do after memorable shots. When Corey Pavin hit brilliant four wood to within four feet at the 18th hole of the 1995 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, he missed the birdie putt. In 2010, Phil Mickelson hit one of golf’s most replayed shots off the pinestraw on the 13th at Augusta to within five feet — and then missed the eagle putt. Both misses are mostly forgotten because Pavin and Mickelson ended up holding the winner’s trophy.
But Morikawa made the seven-footer look like a tap-in, and once he had that two-shot lead, he wasn’t looking back.
Now he is a major champion at 23. It should also be noted that four of the top eight Sunday are 26 or under. Bryson DeChambeau, who might win a Mr. Universe title about the same time as he wins a major, is 26. Scottie Scheffler is 24. Matthew Wolff is 21 — almost two years younger than Morikawa. Morikawa, Wolff and Viktor Hovland — who finished T-33 — all turned pro in the spring of 2019 and all three have already won on the PGA Tour. DeChambeau has won six times on tour, although Sunday was his first top ten in a major.
Before all the stories come tumbling in about the young inheriting golf, let’s pump those breaks a little. Paul Casey and Dustin Johnson, who tied for second, are 43 and 36, respectively. A year ago, only one player under the age of 30 — Brooks Koepka at 29 — won a major. Trying to claim anything as an absolute in golf is a fool’s errand.
There’s no better example of that than Eldrick T. Woods. At 32, he seemed on his way to winning 25 majors. At 40, he was never going to win anything again. After his Masters victory last year, he was supposed to be stalking Jack Nicklaus’s 18 majors again. Going into this week, the Tigeristas were panicked that his creaky back might not make it through a cold San Francisco weekend. When he shot a two-under-par 68 on Thursday, everyone did a 180 and wondered if he might win. He finished T-37. So much for any of us knowing what we’re talking about when it comes to golf predictions. If you had Gary Woodland and Shane Lowry winning majors a year ago, raise your hand — and neither man cracked the top 50 at Harding Park.
That said, there’s no doubt that today’s youngest pros have far more playing experience than 20-somethings from generations past, and Morikawa’s three victories in a little more than a year, topped by the way he handled Sunday’s crucible, are proof that the kids are the real deal.
If winning Sunday is the most impressive thing Morikawa has done, the second most impressive is the way he gets off the deck after disappointments. In the PGA Tour’s first tournament back after the three-month coronavirus-prompted shutdown, he missed a six-foot birdie putt on the 18th green at Colonial that forced him into a playoff with Daniel Berger. Then he missed from less than four feet on the first playoff hole to lose.
Two weeks later, he missed the first cut of his career after making 22 in a row as a pro. After two more weeks, he beat Justin Thomas — currently the No. 1 ranked player in the world — to win the first of two tournaments played in July at Jack Nicklaus’s Muirfield Village golf course. Apparently, sulking or getting down on himself is not part of Morikawa’s personality.
And, unlike so many cookie-cutter pros, he clearly has a personality. When he was asked on Saturday if he thought playing Harding Park, a place he played frequently during his four years as a student across the bay at Cal-Berkeley, gave him an advantage, he shook his head and smiled.
“The only advantage I have is I know which exit to get off at without my phone and I know how to avoid getting ticketed by the police,” he said.
Sunday, he got to the golf course without incident and then played 18 holes without incident — and without a bogey — and walked off with the Wanamaker Trophy.
Still, let’s not get too carried away with the stat CBS repeated nonstop for the last hour of the championship: Morikawa is the fourth 23-year-old to win the PGA, and yes, the other three are Woods, Nicklaus and Rory McIlroy. But comparing anyone to Woods and Nicklaus is silly. They’re so far ahead of the pack in golf’s pantheon that the juxtaposition is ridiculous. McIlroy finished T-33 Sunday and hasn’t won a major title since 2014, but he already has four of them.
He and Koepka are both barely 30. Phil Mickelson didn’t win his first major until he was 33; Ben Hogan was 34. On the other hand, Tom Watson won the last of his eight majors at 33 and Arnold Palmer was 34 when he won for the last time on one of the four Sundays in golf that truly matters.
Morikawa’s future appears limitless right now. Wolff, Scheffler and Hovland aren’t that far behind. Predicting what happens next is close to impossible. All we know for sure is that Morikawa produced a Sunday finish that won’t soon be forgotten.
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