Like a new car, new golf clubs or even a new haircut (which is admittedly daring), it’s easy to believe that what is fresh is better than whatever came before.
There is some of that with Collin Morikawa now that he’s won both the Open Championship and the PGA Championship before he’s legally old enough to rent a car.
He just might be that good.
That’s not to suggest he’s the next Tiger or he’s going to collect Claret Jugs the way Tom Watson did. But what Morikawa has shown us in his still blossoming career is enough to elevate both his achievements and the expectations he will now carry.
He is not a finished product but at 24 years old and with a game built on a pyramid of fundamentals, Morikawa is closer than his peers to being the so-called total package.
Some players win a major and we wonder if they can win another.
Morikawa has won two (in less than 12 months) and the question isn’t if he will win more but how many more will he win.
The answer is probably several more.
“I think winning one can happen to a lot of people playing really good golf in one week. And I think winning two, three more – or more, he’s obviously proven that this stage is where he wants to be,” said Jordan Spieth, who rocketed to prominence similar to the way Morikawa has.
The worst that can be said about Morikawa’s game is that he’s a streaky putter. But he’s halfway to the career Grand Slam. When he needed to make putts at Royal St. George’s, he kept pouring the ball into the middle of the cup.
For all that has changed in the game, Morikawa is a modern player who relies on old school sensibilities. He plays to his strengths. He doesn’t take unnecessary chances and he has a gift for minimizing stress in his rounds.
Some players make the game look like work. Morikawa seems to simplify it. It may not feel that way on the inside. But it looks that way from the outside.
It helps that the flagstick seems to regularly get in the way of his iron shots. Granted the weather wasn’t what it typically can be at the Open Championship but Morikawa looked almost like a guy showing off the way he kept fitting approach shots into tight pin locations last week.
The worst that can be said about Morikawa’s game is that he’s a streaky putter. But he’s halfway to the career Grand Slam. When he needed to make putts at Royal St. George’s, he kept pouring the ball into the middle of the cup.
There are no bad putters on the PGA Tour and while there are better putters than Morikawa, he seems to get better in the bigger moments. Players like that aren’t easy to find.
That’s why he’s one of just eight players to win two majors before their 25th birthday and he’s the first player since Bobby Jones 95 years ago to have two majors in his first eight major starts.
“Everything about my stats say I’m not a good putter statistically. I feel like I can get a lot better,” Morikawa said.
“But in these situations, I feel like everything is thrown off the table. Forget about all your stats, who can perform well in these situations. That’s why I think over the past few majors you’ve seen a lot of the same names up there, because they believe in their game, they know what they’re doing when they practice. And they’re able to bring it out in these big moments.”
For those who suggested his win in the PGA Championship last summer was somehow diminished because he did it without any fans on the grounds, holding off Spieth, Louis Oosthuizen, Jon Rahm and others with more than 30,000 fans soaking up the summer sun in southeastern England destroyed that narrative.
When Morikawa finished his college career at California, he arrived on the PGA Tour as part of a triumvirate with Matthew Wolff and Viktor Hovland. All three have had early success but Morikawa has separated himself.
He remembers being at the Travelers Championship in 2019 – his third PGA Tour event as a pro – and hearing Brooks Koepka talk about how he changed his goals once he knew he belonged.
“When he first turned pro, he was there to make cuts. Then he went to top 30s and top 20s and top 10s,” Morikawa said.
“From that day I just switched to, let’s go out and win. So, by the time I was at the PGA last year I had already played in these events with all these guys, all the big-name guys, and it felt like a normal event.”
Late Sunday evening after being presented with the Claret Jug and having been declared the champion golfer of the year, Morikawa spoke to the people who had watched him win.
It was noteworthy because Morikawa talked about others – low amateur Matthias Schmid, his caddie, his team and more – before he talked about himself. In a spot where the moment could be overwhelming, Morikawa handled it with poise and grace.
Like he was made for the moment.