Why Collin Morikawa’s unusual set of woes would give Pebble Beach a jolt

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — It was the first season of Collin Morikawa’s life – a reset and recharge designed to launch Morikawa’s return to world domination.

And then he woke up Saturday at the Sony Open without a tee time.

“I came into this year feeling really good about myself,” said Morikawa. “You go out and play two rounds at Sony and I miss the cut and you see, man, i need to redo everything you thought you were doing two months ago?”

Professional golf can be unusually brutal like this. The margin between the best players in the world and guys who spend 40 years as insurance salesmen is less than 10 shots a week — and the margin between the highest and lowest in most categories of golf statistics is, on average, less than 1.5 shots per round.

Morikawa has sat on both sides of the totem pole. He arrived on the PGA Tour on a rocketship, winning two tournaments before his 25th birthday to announce himself as one of the game’s young talents. He spent the back half of his twenties in the deepest circle of golf hell: putting woes (along with an unpleasant cocktail of bad form and near misses and caddy changes).

On Saturday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, however, Morikawa came alive. He shot an explosive 10-under 62, recording 11 birdies to one bogey, to advance to Sunday’s final-round pairing with Akshay Bhatia. Sunday will mark Morikawa’s best shot at recording a signature victory in some time, perhaps since his near miss at the 2025 Arnold Palmer Invitational.

But before he gets there, he’ll have to overcome the challenges that have plagued the last few years of his golf career: The ones that come with the putter in his hands.

“Yes, I think I can be [uncomfortable with my putter] throughout my career,” said Morikawa, who was unusually frank on Saturday afternoon.” “It comforts me. I think I play a lot with my gut and I play a lot with my gut and unfortunately that changes a lot.”

Morikawa’s challenge has been shown in the most painful ways: After winning five times in less than two years to start his career, Morikawa has recorded just one victory in the last five years, which came in a relatively easy stop at the Zozo Championship in Japan, and has watched as other stars in his class (most notably Scottie Scheffler) have risen to the top.

Meanwhile, the putter has fallen from being a solid complement to Morikawa’s foreign ball that hits the legal bill. He is ranked 156th on Tour in SG: Entering 2025, the third time he has been ranked 100th on Tour in the same category since the drought began in 2022.

But pitching is an art – and art is fickle. Some weeks, it can be enough to block the entire competition – again this a week, it never moved the needle. On Saturday, Morikawa ranked near the bottom of the field in most putting statistics, made just 55 feet all day, and recorded one of his best rounds. a year.

He said the lesson did not come from changing the way of putting or ability but from a change of mind.

“[Mental coach Rick Sessinghaus] It reminded me of yesterday when I went out for the first time when I turned professional, like I didn’t care about honest cuts or top-20, I went out to win,” said Morikawa on Saturday. I wanted to go out and win, win the weekend, win the tournament.”

Morikawa looked the part of the Pebble Beach winner on Saturday, displaying the same dizzying steel game that made him such a formidable foe in the early days of his career. He also benefited from a third round played before a whipping southerly wind blew in, changing course conditions so that the final group played the 18th hole in 36 minutes.

Good placement is part of winning, but it’s good wealth too. The latter was at Morikawa’s side as he prepared for Sunday’s final round in the final pairing. The last team to leave Pebble on Sunday may find themselves in a tight spot, with conditions expected to worsen in the afternoon. Only the strongest competitor will survive the chaos – the putter must be discarded.

“I’m here to win. If you finish number 30, 15, 3, at the end of the day it’s like I want to win,” said Morikawa. “I have to put that mindset at the beginning of the day, at the beginning of the week and now I think we’ve given ourselves a chance to come tomorrow.”