Collin Morikawa

Morikawa got started at a very young age, playing the Chevy Chase course, a 9-hole course comprised of 10 greens and 36 tees just north of Los Angeles. At the age of 5, he took his first golf lessons at a mini-junior camp at Scholl Canyon in Glendale. From age 8 through high school, Morikawa met with Rick Sessinghaus weekly, an instructor who had a doctorate in sports psychology. That got Morikawa thinking more about the mental part of the game at an early age. He was a great junior player in Southern California and his breakthrough moment came when he won the 2013 Western Junior in Indianapolis.
Morikawa had to choose which college to attend. It came down to UCLA, USC, Stanford and Cal. It wasn't easy, especially since his mother went to USC, but Collin chose Cal, mostly because it had one of the top five business schools in the country along with a top collegiate golf program.
Morikawa established himself as one of the top collegiate golfers in his time at the University of California. He is a two-time Ben Hogan Award finalist and is Cal's only four-time All-American and only three-time first-team All-American in program history. But the accomplishment he is most proud of was being a graduate from the Haas School of Business in four years.
Morikawa enjoyed a decorated career at Cal, where he was the 2018-2019 Pac-12 Men's Golfer of the Year, a two-time All-Nicklaus Team recipient, and Cal's all-time stroke average leader (69.78). In his career at Cal, he had five victories and 22 top-5 finishes in 48 events.
He finished inside the top 20 in each of his last 25 events and had streaks of 10 consecutive finishes in the top seven (his first 10 events in 2018-19), as well as 16 consecutive top-10s that ended with a T-14th at the 2019 NCAA Myrtle Beach Regionals. He then won the 2019 Pac-12 Conference title and finished T-6th in the 2019 NCAA Championships at The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark.
Morikawa was named AmateurGolf.com's Player of the Year in 2016 and 2017. He has played in four U.S. Amateur championships, including a finish in the round of 16 in 2017. Morikawa had a perfect 4-0 record at the 2017 Walker Cup and led the USA to a 19-7 victory over Great Britain & Ireland.
Things could have been totally different in 2016. He got a spot to play in his first professional event, the Air Capital Classic on the then Web.Com Tour. The event in Wichita, Kansas, saw Morikawa shoot rounds of 67-70-63-63 for a 17-under-par 263 total to tie Ollie Schniederjans and J.J. Spaun and force a playoff, which Schniederjans won on the second playoff hole. In the years after, it always stuck in Collin's mind: What couldn't have happened if he had won? For his last three years of college, agents contacted him with what could have earned if he turned pro, but Morikawa stuck to the plan to get his business degree. He did make his PGA Tour debut as an amateur at the 2016 Safeway Open, where he missed the cut.
In 2018, he represented Team USA at the World Amateur Team Championship in Ireland, where he helped the Americans to a second-place finish in a 72-team field and was T-8th individually. He also represented the United States at the 2018 Arnold Palmer Cup, where he won three of his four matches to help Team USA to a 38.5-21.5 victory over Team International. At the 2018 Arnold Palmer Invitational, he competed as an amateur and finished T-64th. Morikawa did have one colleague dream, and that was to help Cal to a national championship. The Bears' only men's golf championship was in 2004, but that dream was unfulfilled, which Morikawa doesn't feel bad about since he tried his best. In his last month as a senior in 2019, he got himself ready to turn professional, writing letters to tournaments looking for sponsor exemptions.
He carded a 5-under 137 at the Columbus, Ohio sectional qualifier to earn a spot in his first U.S. Open.
Morikawa turned professional after graduating from Cal in late May and got a sponsor exemption for the RBC Canadian Open. In his professional debut, he finished T-14th, shooting 67 in the final found. He finished T-35th at the U.S. Open and T-36th at the Travelers. Then he hit his stride. At the 3M Open, he finished T-2nd, a stroke behind winner Matthew Wolff, who eagled the 72nd hole. The next week, he was T-4th at the John Deere Classic, four strokes behind winner Dylan Frittelli. At the Barracuda Championship, which was his sixth PGA Tour event as a professional and his 8th career PGA Tour event, he won the Modified Stableford System by three points as he birdied four of his last five holes. With the win, he earned membership into the PGA Tour and also got into the FedExCup race. In the playoffs, he finished T-52nd at the Northern Trust and T-48th at the BMW Championship. He played nine PGA Tour events, making nine cuts with three top-10s, and was 59th in the FedExCup standings.
2020 Notes: In his first full season on the PGA Tour, Morikawa played in 21 tournaments, making 19 cuts with seven top-10 finishes. He was 6th in the FedExCup standings. In his first start of the season, finished T-10th at the Safeway Open. Was T-7th at the Sentry Tournament of Champions and T-9th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. After the break, finished 2nd at the Charles Schwab Challenge, missing a short three-footer for par on the first playoff hole and losing to Daniel Berger. Got into another playoff at the Workday Charity Open, where he defeated Justin Thomas on the third playoff hole to win in his 26 starts. He became the first player since Tiger Woods in 1996 to win twice before missing two cuts as a professional. A month later, Morikawa won again, this time capturing his first major championship title at the PGA Championship. Thanks to an eagle when he drove the par-4 16th hole, Morikawa won by two strokes over Dustin Johnson and Paul Casey. It was only his second start in a major and at the age of 23 years, 6 months and 3 days old became the fourth player since WWII to win the PGA Championship before turning 24, joining Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. Going a step further, since 1970, Morikawa joined a list of six that won a major at age 23 or younger: Jerry Pate, Seve Ballesteros, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth. Morikawa became the first player to record a closing 36-hole score of 129 or better in all of the majors and his final-round 64 joined Steve Elkington's 64 in the final round in 1995 as the lowest final round by a PGA Championship winner. Morikawa became the 9th player to win the PGA Championship in his tournament debut, and since 1970 became the third to win a major in two or fewer starts (others: Ben Curtis/first start 2003 British Open and Keegan Bradley/first start 2011 PGA Championship). In the FedExCup playoffs, he missed the cut at the Northern Trust, was T-20th at the BMW Championship and 6th at the Tour Championship.
2021 Notes: After missing the cut at the U.S. Open and Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, he finished T-12th at the CJ Cup@Shadow Creek.