What about that then? Collin Morikawa hasn’t just announced himself on to the major championship scene over the last year. He’s just about bawled himself hoarse.
In just eight appearances in golf’s grand slam events, the 24-year-old Californian has now won twice. After his victory on his debut in the US PGA Championship last season, Morikawa marked his maiden appearance in The Open here at Royal St George’s by carting off the Claret Jug. By any measure, it is a remarkable sequence of results. This Royal & Ancient game has its latest superstar.
Morikawa’s wonderfully assembled four-under 66, in a display that was full of poise, precision, nerveless putting and a fair dollop of brave scrambling, gave him a 15-under aggregate of 265, a record low at this venue, and a two shot win over the 2017 champion, Jordan Spieth.
Jon Rahm’s rampaging 66 earned him a tie for third place alongside poor old Louis Oosthuizen, who led overnight, but suffered more major misery as he sagged to a 71. Eleven years to the day since he won The Open at St Andrews, it was not to be his day again.
With this triumph, Morikawa becomes the first player since the great Bobby Jones to win two majors in eight or fewer starts. He also becomes the first male golfer to win on his debut in The US PGA and The Open.
On the same Sandwich links where Ben Curtis won on his first Open outing back in 2003, Morikawa repeated the feat and was a truly deserving Champion Golfer of the Year.
Some had suggested that Morikawa’s 2020 PGA Championship win at Harding Park last August was facilitated by a lack of crowds. He obliterated that notion by marching to glory here in front of 32,000 souls.
“I had nothing to prove,” said the new world No 3 who only turned professional in 2019. “I hope the thing is off the table now. I can play with fans and I can play well on a Sunday. The nerves are definitely up there. But you channel those nerves into excitement and energy. That takes away the fear factor.”
Morikawa’s appearance in the Scottish Open the previous weekend, meanwhile, put a tartan tinge on his Sunday success. “The Scottish Open was a huge week, a great learning experience for me and it all paid off this week,” he said.
On the hottest day of the year in this parish, even the Claret Jug itself just about needed to be slathered in sun tan lotion. Oosthuizen led by one from Morikawa but that advantage was lost when he leaked a shot on the fourth.
It got worse for the South African on the seventh when he got into a desperate guddle in two greenside bunkers and took a sclaffy six. Morikawa picked the perfect time to pounce and break his run of pars with his first birdie of the day to suddenly vault into a two shot lead. “The turning point,” he said.
Morikawa had been patient up until then but thumped the pedal to the floor with two more birdies at eight and nine which were set up by a couple of beautiful, trademark irons. Morikawa’s triple whammy of gains in that surging stretch ensured he grabbed the championship in a double nelson.
He worked hard to maintain that grip too. On the 10th, for instance, he dug himself out of some treacherous rough and made a significant putt for his par to maintain the momentum.
Spieth, who had wobbled early on with bogeys at the fourth and sixth, injected his faltering bid with fresh gusto and a 20-footer for eagle on the seventh underlined his spirit.
Four more birdies in a bold 66 kept the pressure on Morikawa but trying to buckle the man in front was like attempting to bend an iron girder over your knee. “I needed a break and I didn’t get it from him,” said Spieth, whose crippling late lapse during Saturday’s third round, when he three-putted both the 17th and 18th, ultimately proved costly in the final analysis.
This was still Spieth’s best finish in a major since he won The Open four years ago. “I’m proud, I did everything I could to win this,” he added.
Rahm’s raid was aided by four birdies in a row from the 13th while Brooks Koepka bounded into sixth with a 65.
The glory would belong to Morikawa, though. “Every night I’ve seen all the caddies drink and I was saying ‘man, I really want to drink’,” he smiled.
Presumably, the Claret Jug would be getting filled with something a bit stronger than mineral water.
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