With His Win at Muirfield, Collin Morikawa Did Something That Only Tiger Woods Has Done in PGA Tour History
At just 23 years of age, Collin Morikawa has proved that he’s going to be a force to be reckoned with on the PGA Tour for many years to come. The young phenom notched his second tour win on Sunday at the Workday Charity Open at Muirfield Village, winning a wild playoff against Justin Thomas, and has joined 82-time winner Tiger Woods in an impressive and exclusive club.
Collin Morikawa defeated Justin Thomas in an epic playoff at Muirfield Village to capture his second PGA Tour victory
In his first trip to Jack Nicklaus’ famed track at Muirfield Village, Collin Morikawa showed no signs of fear whatsoever, shooting 65-66 over the first two rounds to take a three-shot lead into the final 36 holes. He stumbled a bit in Saturday’s third round, shooting even-par 72, and entered the final round down by two. He then found himself three shots down with three holes to play on Sunday as Justin Thomas had seemingly pulled away from the field with an incredible stretch of golf in which he shot 7-under in eight holes.
But then things started to change as Thomas unraveled, bogeying two of the final three holes. Morikawa made a clutch birdie at No. 17 to cut the lead to one and then snuck in a nerve-wracking par putt on the 18th to finish at 19-under, setting up the sudden-death playoff with JT.
As Jim Nantz (as usual) so eloquently put it, a live gallery was missed during the playoff more than any time since the PGA Tour resumed its season last month. Faced with a 50-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole, Thomas played 10 feet of break and drained it, yelling out “COME ON!!!” as it dropped into the hole.
But Collin Morikawa calmly stepped up and drilled a 25-footer of his own, showing unbelievable poise. The duo traded pars on the second playoff hole and a two-putt par on the third was good enough to seal the deal as Morikawa captured his second PGA Tour win.
Collin Morikawa achieved something only Tiger Woods has done
The Workday Charity Open marked the 24th start on the PGA Tour for Collin Morikawa since turning pro last year. He’s missed just one cut thus far, which actually came just a couple of weeks back at the Travelers Championship, leaving him three shy of a Tiger Woods record for most consecutive cuts made to start a career. But with his win at Muirfield, he now joins Tiger in a very exclusive club as he became just the second player in PGA Tour history to win his second tournament before missing his second cut, which is quite the accomplishment.
Now we just have to wait and see if Morikawa can win as many tournaments as Tiger did before missing that second cut. Are you ready for this? Before missing his second cut on the PGA Tour, Tiger Woods racked up 43 wins. 43!!! That’s just one less than Phil Mickelson has in his entire Hall of Fame career. Incredible.
While it will certainly take a lot for Collin Morikawa to reach that, he at least has something on Tiger in the interim.
He’s jumped ahead of Tiger Woods in the Official World Golf Ranking
When the latest Official World Golf Ranking dropped on Monday morning, Collin Morikawa was sitting at a career-best No. 13, up 16 spots from No. 29. His latest ranking puts him one spot ahead of Tiger Woods, who sits at No. 14. Both will be in the field at the Memorial this week. Tiger will be looking for win number six at Muirfield as Morikawa goes for the rare back-to-back. Is anyone else hoping to see these two battle down the stretch?
