Collin Morikawa Kicks Off St. Jude Championship With a 4-Under 66

Collin Morikawa posted his best round of golf since the last weekend of June and sits in a tie for seventh place at the St. Jude Championship, the first leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs.

The 28-year-old Cal grad shot a 4-under 66 at TPC Southwind in Memphis, and played bogey-free golf until the 18th hole.

Morikawa is four strokes off the pace set by Akshay Bhatia, who made seven birdies and an eagle on the way to a career-best 8-under 62. Bhatia entered the event ranked 45th in the FedEx Cup standings. Tommy Fleetwood is in second place after firing a 7-under 63, thanks to birdies on the final four holes.

Harry Hall, Justin Rose and Bud Cauley are all tied for third at 64 with Si Woo Kim in sixth position after a 65.

The St. Jude, with a field of 70 golfers, is the first leg of the three-week FedEx Cup playoffs. The series continues next week with the field cut to 50 for the BMW Championship outside Baltimore followed by the Tour Championship at Atlanta featuring the top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings.

Collin Morikawa hits from the rough on the 17th hole | Steve Roberts-Imagn Images

Morikawa, who finished second in the playoffs a year ago, entered this week at 19th in the standings. That guarantees he will advance to the BMW event regardless of how he fares this week.

But he hasn’t played consistently well the past couple months, missing the cut in his two previous tournaments, including the Open Championship in Scotland so turning things around is important. Thursday was Morikawa’s best round since carding a 64 in the second round of the Rocket Classic on June 27.

He began the day with birdies on Nos. 2 and 3, then did the same on 6 and 10 to climb into a tie for sixth place through 12 holes, Another birdie on No. 13 lifted him to a tie for fifth at 5 under and he remained there until his bogey on 18.

Morikawa is playing with his fifth different caddie since splitting with long-time sidekick J.J. Jakovac in late April. He is now working with Mark Urbanek, who spent five years carrying the bag for Tony Finau.

Morikawa is part of a five-way tie for seventh along with Russell Henley and Rickie Fowler.

Fellow Cal alum Michael Kim started well, logging birdies on the first and third holes. But he shot 5 over for the final five holes, including double bogeys on the 14th and 18th holes, to finish at 2-over 72 and tied for 57th place.

Kim, 32, is No. 35 in the FedEx Cup standings and need to finish in at least a two-way tie for 20th place this weekend to advance, per NBC Sports.

World No. 1 and defending champion Scottie Scheffler shot a 67 and is tied for 12th place, five strokes back.

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