Cal Golf: Newlywed Collin Morikawa Shares the Lead at the Hero World Challenge
Golf as a married man is working out well so far for Collin Morikawa.
Less than a week after he was married to long-time girlfriend Katherine Zhu, Morikawa fired an opening-round 3-under 69 to share the lead at the Hero World Challenge on Thursday at Albany in the Bahamas.
“It’s great,” Morikawa said of his newlywed status. “Finally get to call Kat `my wife’ instead of saying ‘fiancée’ and then explaining the next 10 minutes about a wedding and how many people and everything else. It’s a lot more simple now.”
Morikawa, 25, is tied with 20-year-old Tom Kim of South Korea, Austria’s Sepp Straka and Norway’s Viktor Hovland after 18 holes. Straka was a late addition to the field after tournament host Tiger Woods withdrew because of plantar fasciitis in his right foot.
Max Homa, another Cal graduate, is tied for sixth place, just two strokes off the pace at minus-1.
The event features a field of 20 of the world’s top golfers competing for a purse totaling $3.5 million. Eight of the 20 participants broke par in the first round and four others were even at 72.
Morikawa appeared poised to win this tournament a year ago, completing three rounds at 18 under. By closing out the win on Sunday, he would have ascended to the No. 1 world ranking.
That didn’t happen, as he skidded to a final-round 76, putting a damper on a week in which he successfully proposed to Zhu on the beach at the Bahamas. Hovland went on to win the event last year.
Now ranked 10th in the world after finishing 2022 without a PGA tour victory, Morikawa was 2-over after six holes before reeling off six birdies over the final 10. He birdied the 18th hole Thursday to climb into the four-way tie for the lead.
“I just kind of knew that the game’s there, I’ve just got to keep going. I never got mentally frustrated, I kind of just stuck with it,” he said. “That was the biggest thing.”
Kim, who was thrilled to meet his hero, Woods, assembled his 69 by making three birdies in a bogey-free round, Hovland had just a single bogey along with two birdies and an eagle-2 on the par-4 14th, and Straka matched Morikawa’s card with six birdies and three bogeys.
Homa, 32, is coming off his finest season on the tour, having won twice, posting five top-10 finishes and earning more than $5 million in prize money. Homa is tied with Tommy Fleetwood and Cameron Young at 71, after birdies on Nos. 3 and 6, a bogey on the eighth then pars on each of the final 10 holes.
Morikawa tees off on the first hole Friday at 8:58 a.m. PT while Homa goes off at 8:36 a.m.
Cover photo of Collin Morikawa by Peter Casey, USA Today
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo