Cal Golf: At 23, Collin Morikawa Joins Jack, Tiger and Rory as Youngest PGA Champs

Former Cal star's spectacular tee shot at 16 helped ice two-stroke victory

The chip shot for a birdie on the 14th hole.

The unthinkable tee shot on the 16th.

Those will be the forever moments in Collin Morikawa’s spectacular victory at the PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco on Sunday.

Consider that former Cal quarterback Aaron Rodgers was 27 when he won the Super Bowl. Golden Bears icon Jason Kidd didn’t get his NBA championship ring until he was 38.

Morikawa has joined the lofty ranks of Jack Nicklaus (1963), Tiger Woods (1999) and Rory McIlroy (2012) as 23-year-olds to win the PGA for the first time. No one younger has done it.

It was a performance so stunning that it led to CBS analyst Nick Faldo saluting the former four-time All-American and 2019 Cal graduate with a “Go Bears!”

Morikawa’s only misstep Sunday after a bogey-free round of 64 was when he enthusiastically hoisted the Wanamaker Trophy and the lid toppled off onto the ground.

Collin Morikawa reacts when the top of the Wanamaker Trophy falls off

Photo by Kyle Terada, USA Today

That was a mulligan everyone was willing to give him on his biggest day on the golf course.

“It’s amazing. It’s been a life goal, obviously, since I was a little kid. This is what I’ve always wanted to do,” Morikawa said. “I felt very comfortable from the start, as an amateur, junior golfer, turning professional last year.

“But to finally close if off and come out here in San Francisco, pretty much my second home, where I spent the last four years, is pretty special.”

Morikawa says he played Harding Park perhaps a dozen times while he was at Cal, and welcomed whatever edge that gave him.

“I still had to read the greens, I still had to come out here, be prepared to play,” he said. "I guess it helped enough.”

Good enough to pocket the biggest first-place purse of his brief career: $1,980,000. That pushes Morikawa's 2020 earnings to the staggering total of $5,144,088.

.

*** Morikawa's go-ahead chip-in at 14:

.

Morikawa was perfect from start on Sunday even as the lead pack stayed bunched. At one point there were seven players tied for the lead at 10 strokes under.

Morikawa took the lead at 11 under by converting a 50-foot chip shot for a birdie on 14.

.

*** Morikawa's tee shot on 16 that led to eagle:

.

*** Morikawa's eagle putt on 16:

.

But it was his tee shot on the 294-yard 16th that had everyone buzzing. That shot came to rest barely seven feet of the hole, then he converted for his 16th eagle of the season to go 13 under and open a two-stroke lead on England’s Paul Casey.

“What a shot he hit on 16 . . . just awesome golf,” Casey said. “There’s nothing you can do but tip your cap to that.”

“I could feel that drive at 16 in my bones,” Faldo said. “That will be tough to beat as the shot of the year.”

Morikawa played it safe on 18, and tapped in for a par 4, giving him a 64 for the final round and a 13-under score of 267. He shot in the 60s all four rounds, and closed out the weekend by going 65-64 on the weekend.

He is the youngest player to shoot a 64 in the final round a major. Ever.

“The California kid is the new star in the game of golf,” CBS host Jim Nantz said.

Casey and Dustin Johnson finished two strokes back at 11-under 269 while Matthew Wolff, Jason Day, Tony Finau, Bryson DeChambeau and Scottie Scheffler wound up in a five-way tie for fourth at 10-under.

Two-time defending champion Brooks Koepka faded and finished in a tie for 29th at three-under. Woods wound up in a tie for 37th at minus-1.

Cal’s other golfer still playing on the weekend, Byeong-Hun An, also shot a 64 in the final round, boosted by a hole-in-one on the par-3 11th. The 28-year-old finished in a tie for 22nd place at four-under for the tournament.

*** Byeong-Hun An's hole-in-one:

.

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo

Click the "follow" button in the top right corner to join the conversation on Cal Sports Report on SI. Access and comment on featured stories and start your own conversations and post external links on our community page