© Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Network
Collin Morikawa, Max Homa Finish Tied for Third at Masters
Scottie Scheffler ends up winning the Masters by four strokes, but former Cal golfers Morikawa and Homa were tied for the lead midway through the final round
Former Cal golfers Collin Morikawa and Max Homa challenged for the Masters title in the fourth round on Sunday, but they could not keep up Scottie Scheffler, who broke away from the pack to win the Masters for the second time in three years.
Morikawa and Homa each tied for the lead when they sank birdie putts on the eighth hole Sunday, but Scheffler was better on the back nine.
Scheffler shot a 3-under-par 68 in the final round to finish at 11-under, four strokes ahead of runnerup Ludvig Aberg. Aberg wound up three strokes ahead of Morikawa, Homa and Tommy Fleetwood, who tied for third at 4 under par.
Morikawa faltered over the final 10 holes and recorded a final round of 2-over-par 74 for a 4-under-par score for the tournament. He fell short of getting his third major title, but finishing tied for third represented his best result in a major since winning The Open Championship in 2021.
Homa shot a 1-over-par 73 on Sunday to finish at 4-under and tied with Morikawa and Fleetwood for third place, which is his best finish in a major. He achieved his first top-10 finish in a major when he tied for 10th at the previous major, the 2022 Open Championship in England, and he got closer to his first major title this week at the Masters.
A third ex-Cal golfer, Byeong Hun An, began the day in the top 10, but he slipped to a tie for 16th with a 3-over-par round on Sunday to finish at 2-over. Nonetheless, this is his best finish in a major.
However, the focus was on Morikawa and Homa, who were within striking distance of the lead for much of the final round.
Morikawa began the day one stroke behind leader Scheffler, and Morikawa drew into a tie for lead when he sank a birdie putt on the eighth hole.
That the high point of Morikawa’s round, though, as things got away from him in the next three holes. He had a double-bogey 6 on No. 9, then hit his ball into the pond and wound up with a double-bogey 6 on the 11th hole to take him out of contention.
"Greed got the best of me," Morikawa said. "Nine, can't miss it over there and can't leave it in the bunker. Eleven, just tried to hit too perfect of a shot. It's not like at that point I was trying to press. I knew where I stood. Yeah, it's just can't do that."
He birdied 13 and 15 to put him in position to finish second, but his wayward tee shot on the 18th ruined any chance for a runnerup finish. He had to hit his second shot backward, then hit his third shot into the sand. He had to make a lengthy putt just to get a bogey 5, falling into tie with Homa, who had finished in the pairing before him.
Homa was still in contention for the title after 10 holes Sunday. He was tied for the lead when he birdied No. 8, and he was at 2-under for the day and 7-under for the tournament after getting a birdie on the 10th hole, leaving him just one stroke behind the leaders.
But bad luck resulted in a double bogey for Homa on No. 12. Homa hit a decent tee shot on that short, par-3 12th hole, but the ball hopped off the green and into vines on the bank. Homa asked his caddie, Joe Greiner, "Where did it go?"
After a couple of minutes of searching for his ball, Homa found it in the thick cover. He had an unplayable lie and took a 1-stroke penalty. His chip shot stopped on the fringe, and he two-putted for a double-bogey 5 to drop to 5-under.
"The honest answer is it didn't feel fair," Homa said when asked about that hole. "I hit a really good golf shot, and it didn't feel fair. I've seen far worse just roll back down the hill. Yeah, the professional answer is these things happen."
However, this result is a big improvement for Homa, whose struggles in majors have haunted him. In the four majors before his 10th-place finish at The Open Championship last year, he had missed the cut in two of them and finished 43rd and 55th in the other two.
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