Collin Morikawa's chase of Scottie Scheffler at Memorial falls just short
Bill Rabinowitz
Collin Morikawa thought his tee shot on the final hole of the Memorial Tournament was perfect.
It landed in the fairway bunker.
After his approach landed in the thick rough behind the 18th hole, Morikawa had a delicate chip shot. When it landed and started rolling, he thought it was headed for the cup and a potential tie with Scottie Scheffler.
Alas, he misread the break and it slipped past the hole.
“To be honest, I thought it was breaking right,” Morikawa said. “I completely whiffed that one, and it broke left. But that's such a tough chip shot. All I had to do was just kind of nestle it on the green.
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“I hit it exactly how I wanted it, and you can't complain when you're hitting shots like that down the stretch.”
Scheffler then made his 5-foot par putt to stay at 9-under par to clinch his fifth PGA Tour victory in eight starts.
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It was Morikawa's second runner-up finish in the Memorial. He lost in a playoff to Patrick Cantlay in 2021. Morikawa did win at Muirfield Village Golf Club in 2020 when the Workday Charity Open was played there during the pandemic.
“Sometimes you show up to a golf course and you just love it and you feel like you can make birdies on every hole,” Morikawa said. “Some courses, you just have that feeling. I played (the par-3) hole No. 12 3-under par this week, and that's ridiculous. I looked at my caddie today and I was like, 'I don't know if we're ever going to do that again.' But every hole out here, I feel like I can birdie.”
Morikawa was one of only six players to shoot under par on Sunday, and the only one among those toward the top of the Saturday leaderboard. He started the day at 6-under par, four shots behind Scheffler, and his 71 couldn't quite close the gap.
“I knew it was going to be tough,” Morikawa said. “With where my game's at, I felt like if I could get to 10, we would have a chance, and 10 would have been plenty. There's a balance. You always think someone's going to take it low on a Sunday.”
Nobody did. The best score was a 69 on a day when golfers had to contend with wind and dry greens that were hard to hold. Scheffler's 74 was enough to fend off the 27-year-old Californian, who's ranked eighth in the world.
“Collin made a good push today,” Scheffler said. “He hit a lot of good shots out there. It was a great round of golf, and he was a tough guy to beat today.”
Morikawa's best chance to catch Scheffler came on the 15th hole after the leader's birdie putt lipped out. But Morikawa pulled his 6½-foot birdie putt left.
After Morikawa bogeyed No. 16 and Scheffler No. 17, Morikawa was one shot behind going to the 18th.
“The tee shot, I thought I hit perfect,” Morikawa said. “(But it landed) in the middle of the bunker (because of) the wind. What are you going to do?”
Then came the chip from the rough that looked good – for an instant.
Still, the week was a confidence boost for Morikawa, a two-time major winner, heading into next week's U.S. Open in Pinehurst, North Carolina.
“If I could play like this heading into every major,” he said, “I would take it in a heartbeat.”