© Getty Images Sport – Kevin C. Cox / Staff
Immediately strong emotions after the first round of the 2023 Tour Championship which decides the best golfer on the PGA Tour for the current season. In East Lake the great protagonist is Collin Morikawa, formally first tied at -10 for how the rules of engagement of the event work, but in fact the author of a masterful -9 which forcefully brings him back in the running towards very high goals.
Collin Morikawa, results
The two-time Major winner finds himself together with his compatiot Keegan Bradley, author of a -7 however very commendable, and the Norwegian Viktor Hovland, for whom a -2 is enough given that he started second in the ranking drawn up on the basis of the FedEx Cup standings before the ‘main appointment.
Immediately behind instead Scottie Scheffler, in the sense that he loses the leadership and is fourth at -9 (first round score of +1) alone. Adam Schenk and Russell Henley also did well, both at -8 with valid laps respectively at -7 and -5 which bring them together in fifth position.
Even for them the status is one of substantial surprises, capable of going beyond the level thought on the eve. Further proof that this tournament has and will have a lot of the unexpected. Seventh position for Rory McIlroy, who starts (again) from – 7, ie
equal to par and being joined by the Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick and the Spanish Jon Rahm. Behind the trio with the Northern Irish inside, and therefore among the tenth, there are the English Tyrrell Hatton and the USA Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark and Brian Harman, all at -6 overall. Born in Los Angeles to Debbie and Blaine Morikawa, respectively of Chinese and Japanese origin, he began playing golf at the age of 5.
He studied at the University of California, Berkeley, where he played the sport from 2015 to 2019 before graduating in business administration. He turns pro in 2019 by taking part in the Canadian Open, where he finishes in 14th place.
In August 2020 he won the PGA Championship at his first attempt, then repeating his success in July 2021 with the victory of the British Open, again as a rookie. This made him the first golfer in history to win two majors in his first game.
The Californian also becomes the seventh golfer since 1900 to win the Open on debut – after Jock Hutchison (1921), Denny Shute (1933), Ben Hogan (1953), Tony Lema (1964), Tom Watson (1975) and Ben Curtis ( 2003) – as well as setting a new record for strokes on the Royal St.
George’s course with 265 (the previous record of 267, set in 1993, was by Greg Norman). In 2021 he participates in the Games of the XXXII Olympics in Tokyo finishing third after the scheduled fourth rounds, but on an equal footing with nine o the golfers. In the playoffs, however, he was overtaken by Pan Cheng-tsung finishing in fourth place.