Familiar woes pop up for Collin Morikawa at the worst time

Collin Morikawa was well on his way to winning the Sentry Tournament of Champions on Sunday until everything he had worked to overcome came undone

Victory can be a slippery thing for a PGA Tour pro. Just when you think you have a firm hold, when visions of hoisting the trophy on the 18th green start popping up in your head, it can all be snatched away.

Collin Morikawa knows the feeling. For 67 holes at the Hawaiian paradise of Kapalua, Morikawa was in full control of the Sentry Tournament of Champions. His shotmaking, the strength of his game, was on. So was his putting, usually his big weakness, as Morikawa led the field in strokes gained on the green through three rounds.

Morikawa led by six shots entering Sunday’s final round, seeking his first win since the 2021 Open Championship. He led by as many as seven early in his round. Then, in a span of three holes, it all fell apart.

Morikawa was in a bunker on the 14th hole when he blasted his shot over the green. It led to his first bogey of the tournament and his first in 86 holes on this course dating back to last year’s third round. At the par-five 15th, the second-easiest par-five on the PGA Tour last season, he was in the middle of the fairway off the tee but hit his second shot too far left. It rolled down the steep slope guarding the green and left him with a delicate 40-yard chip.

It’s these situations that have kept Morikawa winless for more than a year. The same bowed-wrist motion that makes him among the game’s best ball strikers is a detriment when chipping. He had been working with Parker McLachlin, a former PGA Tour winner, to correct his motion and believed he had unlocked a secret. Morikawa had been perfect in scrambling all week.

But these pressure moments often test whether a player is entirely comfortable with what they are doing. The strain of trying to close out a win exposes a weakness. And it exposed Morikawa, who chunked his third shot and made his second straight bogey on the easiest hole on the golf course.

At the same time, ahead of him on the course, Jon Rahm was quickly and methodically catching up. Rahm bogeyed his first hole of the day to fall nine shots back of Morikawa. By the time he eagled the 15th, at the same time Morikawa was making bogey a hole behind him, Rahm was tied for the lead. He played his final 17 holes in 11-under, shooting a 10-under 63 on Sunday to post 27-under for the tournament.

Morikawa made another bogey on the 16th, his third straight on the back-nine, and finished alone in second place at 25-under. “Sadness. I don’t know. It sucks. You work so hard and you give yourself these opportunities and just bad timing on bad shots and kind of added up really quickly,” a stunned Morikawa said after the round. “Don’t know what I’m going to learn from this week, but it just didn’t seem like it was that far off. It really wasn’t.”

Tournament of Champions reveals Morikawa still has work to do

Golf isn’t a game of quick fixes. The work Morikawa has put in to become better around the greens will take time. He can take solace from the fact that, for much of the tournament, he looked more like the young, rising superstar who won five titles and two majors in his first three years on tour instead of the player who has now gone 27 straight tournaments without a win.

“We’re still getting there, but for me, I know there’s still a lot of work to do. Obviously, it shows today, but I’m willing to put in that work,” he said. Morikawa was 152nd in Strokes Gained: Around the Greens last season, and 131st in putting. He’s improved in both of those areas, even if the result this week will leave him with more questions heading into the rest of the 2023 season.

Rahm got the trophy. Morikawa got a lesson that, too often in golf, struggle usually precedes success.