Three bad swings at the wrong time.
Collin Morikawa’s historic collapse during the 2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions – won – was explained by Jon Rahm . He joined the nine players who squandered six shots leads after 54 rounds on the PGA Tour.
“Sadness. I don’t know. He said that it was “sucking” after the round. You work so hard, you give yourself these chances and bad timing on poor shots. It all adds up very quickly.”
Sunday was not the only mistake of the 25-year old American. In the final round, he also lost a five shot lead to the 2021 Hero World Challenge.
Hero is different. Hero began badly, never found it and never felt good. Morikawa spoke calmly to the media, just minutes after his back nine missteps. “Just made three poor swings at the wrong times. Although it’s not a good idea to take a bad swing at it, sometimes it works out.
Morikawa’s first bogey of the week was Sunday at Nos. He shot 14-16 at Kapalua’s Plantation Course, and matched the second-worst score for the day, a 1-under 72. When he reached the 15 th green, he realized he wasn’t in good shape and was trying to play for par to keep the lead.
Morikawa said, “At that stage it’s quite different than the feeling you had earlier on.” Rahm finished his seven final holes at 6 under. Morikawa was 2 under down the last stretch.
The grind never ends. pic.twitter.com/bKIHSgMmwa
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR January 9, 2023
Morikawa stated that he will take a few days off in Hawaii to experience the best of Hawaii – although he admits it won’t feel as exciting now – and will next play at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, San Diego, at the end. Next, Morikawa will be at the WM Phoenix Open (Feb. 9-12), and the Genesis Invitational (16-19) at Riviera, near Los Angeles. Morikawa finished T-2 last year.
Morikawa won the Barracuda Championship in 2019. This was after a stellar college and amateur career at Cal. Morikawa has won five times on the PGA Tour in just 77 starts. He also has 26 top-10 finishes.
Morikawa is currently in the top three for this season. However, he has not won since July 2021.
He said, “We’re still progressing but I know there’s still much work to be done.” It shows today, but it’s something I’m willing and able to do.”
