by A year ago, Collin Morikawa had plays in exactly one major. Today, after a decisive victory at the Open Championship, he has as many major victories in the last 12 months as Dustin Johnson, Fuzzy Zoeller, Greg Norman and Ben Crenshaw in their entire careers.
On the hottest day of the year in Sandwich, England, Morikawa remained calm, separating himself from the pack with a string of three birdies to close the front nine, followed by a steady and precise back nine. He finished at -15, two strokes ahead of Jordan Spieth and four ahead of Louis Oosthuizen and Jon Rahm.
Like Norman, Morikawa won the Open Championship at Royal St. George’s. Unlike Norman – or anyone else in golf history – Morikawa won two majors in his first performance at each. He will now head into the major offseason as one of the game’s most decorated players at the age of 24.
The first rounds
Sunday marked the first time the Claret Jug had changed hands in two years, since Shane Lowry’s victory at Royal Portrush in 2019. The R&A made the decision last spring to cancel the 2020 Open entirely rather than attempt to welcoming it under COVID conditions, and even As 2021 approached, the pandemic still cast a long shadow.
Open players arrived in Sandwich with heavy restrictions on their movement and contact, leading to complaints that partially full galleries had had an easier weekend. The R&A’s restrictions and testing eliminated more than a dozen players before the tournament began, including Bubba Watson, former Open champion Zach Johnson and reigning Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama. Fortunately for the tournament, COVID restrictions did not affect the flow of play once Thursday arrived.
There is only one road in and out of Royal St. George’s, which means if you want to stay ahead of the pack, you need to get ahead early. (Sergio Garcia, who nearly missed his tee time due to a traffic jam, would agree.) Oosthuizen, less than a month removed from his near miss at the US Open, began his round with seven consecutive pars before finding another speed and making birdies. the rest of the round to finish with a 64. He held the absolute lead at -6, one ahead of Spieth and Brian Harman.
The biggest news on Thursday came not from the course, but from the media tent. Bryson DeChambeau has struggled at Royal St. George’s, as his current bash-it-and-see-what-happens style doesn’t translate well to links golf. DeChambeau made the unwise choice to blame his equipment for his early troubles. He declared that his Cobra driver “sucked,” which drew a quick and angry response from Cobra…not to mention barbs from his perpetual rival Brooks Koepka.
Bad weather, almost always a challenge at the Open Championship, has apparently decided to take a vacation, leaving Royal St. George’s kissed by gentle breezes under blue skies. Morikawa, with an early morning start Friday, took advantage of the calm conditions to shoot a six-under 64 and briefly hold the leaderboard… until Oosthuizen went for it, then caught up and passed him with a 65. The Oosthuizen’s combined score was the lowest. ever recorded over the first 36 holes of an Open, giving him the solo lead once again heading into the weekend.
Conditions at Royal St. George’s were not as punishing as previous Opens, but they still took their toll. Phil Mickelson spent a good part of his Open dead last, finishing at +12. Will Zalatoris had to retire after hurting his back pulling out of waist-deep hay surrounding the course. And Tyrrell Hatton struggled on Friday, taking out his frustrations on a bad wedge on his final hole of the day.
The weekend
The weekend arrived with Oosthuizen once again leading in a major tournament, as did the same questions about whether he could finally convert another. He won in 2010 at St. Andrews, but since then he has finished second six times in majors, including the last two. However, his emotional register ranges from “cool” to “very cool”, and so he has once again emerged from a long crisis to begin his turn. He finished the day with a 69, enough to hold a one-shot lead over Morikawa.
Playing alongside Oosthuizen, Morikawa struggled early, making two bogeys over his first five holes. But he went -4 the rest of the way to finish the day one shot behind Oosthuizen, setting up another pairing for Sunday.
Spieth, meanwhile, worked his way up to force his way to the lead. But he saw his third round fall apart with two late bogeys at 17 and 18, including an 18-inch miss at 18 that left him fuming and racing straight to the green. Three strokes behind Oosthuizen to tee off on Sunday, Spieth spent hours working with his putter, taking it to the course on Sunday morning.
The final round
The leaders didn’t start until 2:35 p.m. local time on Sunday, enough time to realize that it would be a sprint and not a chore. Birdies were everywhere Sunday morning, with Koepka stacking them like firewood. Koepka got as close as -8, four shots back of Oosthuizen’s lead, on the 12th hole, but then stalled to finish there.
Oosthuizen, Morikawa and Spieth all held serve through the first three holes, but on the fourth, Spieth was the first to flinch. He made a bogey to lose four shots from the lead, but soon after, Oosthuizen in the final pair did the same. A clutch putt kept Morikawa tied for the lead at -11.
Spieth continued to struggle in the sixth, dropping another shot to close the first third of the course at -7, four shots behind the leader and one shot behind Koepka and a surging Dylan Frittelli. Shortly after, Rahm made an eagle at the 7th after missing two consecutive birdie putts, putting himself three shots ahead.
But Spieth found something on the 7th hole, a long, choppy two-break that dropped for an eagle to put him back in even par on the day and two shots ahead. Alongside Spieth, Corey Conners briefly worked his way into the conversation by draining an eagle to get to -9.
The easiest hole on the course, the same 7th, brutalized Oosthuizen. He dropped his approach into a greenside bunker, then completely botched his escape attempt, blasting the ball all the way across the green and into another bunker. Oosthuizen made bogey on the hole even as Morikawa birdied it, a two-shot swing that left Morikawa ahead by two shots on the field at -12.
Spieth finished his front nine with another birdie to get to -10, even with Oosthuizen. He followed up with another birdie at the 10th to go down to -11 and overtake Oosthuizen.
But even as Spieth soared, Morikawa kept him at bay, birdieing the final three holes of the front nine to make the turn at -14.
Oosthuizen finally put a red number on the board at the par-3 11th, birdieing the hole after hitting the flag off the tee. But that still left him three shots behind Morikawa, who withstood tricky shots at 10 and 11 without giving up a single shot.
Spieth started the final third of the course with a two-shot birdie from Morikawa. Moments later, Oosthuizen effectively ended another major bid when his tee shot nestled against the front wall of a fairway bunker. He made bogey in the hole, falling four shots back with five holes remaining.
Morikawa calmed down a bit, playing the first four holes of the back nine with even par, but Spieth kept the pressure on. Another birdie on 14 brought him within one stroke with just four holes to play. Rahm stayed out of the conversation with four straight late birdies that put him at -11 with two holes to play.
But Morikawa remained ridiculously steady, making an uphill birdie on the 14th to extend his lead to two shots again at -15. In front of him, Spieth narrowly missed a birdie putt at the 15th; two shots behind, Spieth’s opportunities were diminishing.
Morikawa opened the door in a single motion with a skittish approach that found the Royal St. George’s thicket quite harsh. But he got out of serious trouble, then made a long par save to keep the field two shots behind.
Spieth kept up the pressure, working his way to a birdie putt on 17. But he couldn’t convert, staying two shots back as he headed to the final hole. Behind him, Morikawa executed nifty, strategic shots on 17 and 18 to protect his lead, and when Spieth parred 18, Morikawa had all the cushion he needed to come up the 18th fairway and claim the Claret Jug.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter at @jaybusbee or contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com.
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