Cal Golf: Collin Morikawa Sits Atop Leaderboard After a Rainy Thursday at the Memorial

A two-hour weather delay for rain and lightning at the Memorial golf tournament in Dublin, Ohio, did nothing to detail former Cal stars Collin Morikawa or Max Homa on Thursday.

Morikawa is the first-round leader after firing a six-under 66 at Muirfield Village and Homa is tied for seventh at three-under 69.

Bad weather halted the tournament at 12:46 p.m. local time and golfers didn’t return to the course until 2:45 p.m. Subsequently, there was a second weather delay.

Ranked No. 6 in the world, Morikawa was the leader at minus-6 through 15 holes when play was halted and he returned to make par on his final three holes. Likewise, Homa was at minus-3 through 16 holes when the stoppage occurred and he closed with two pars.

Play was halted for good at 6:45 p.m. local time, resuming Friday at 7:30 a.m. There still were 54 golfers on the course — including Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Bryson DeChambeau — and six more who hadn’t yet teed off when officials called it a day.

There is no rain in the forecast for the next three days, the Columbus Dispatch reported.

This birdie set-up from @Collin_Morikawa. 💯

He's 3-under thru 6. pic.twitter.com/ClQ5Qcby4n
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 3, 2021

Morikawa, the 24-year-old four-time tour winner captured the Workday Charity Open on this course last July. A week later, playing the Memorial at Muirfield, he finished 48th place.

Starting on the back nine Thursday, the 2019 Cal grad had birdies on 12, 14 and 15 and a bogey on the 18th. He left that in his rear-view mirror by making birdies on the first three holes after the turn. When he birdied No. 5 and Adam Long made bogey on No. 14, Morikawa was alone at the top of the leaderboard at minus-6.

Jack Nicklaus oversaw a near complete overhaul of Muirfield in the past year but Morikawa handled the changes. Nos. 1, 4, 5, 7 and 15 underwent major revisions including a new green setup, and Morikawa had three birdies and two pars on those holes.

He was very good on the greens, converting 15 of 16 putts from 10 feet and shorter, according to the Golf Channel.

"It fits my eye off the tee a lot," Morikawa said Thursday of of the Muirfield Village course, echoing his words from earlier in the week. "There's only a couple tee shots where I might not be able to hit my cut as well as I want to.

“But other than that if I keep it in the fairway, I feel like I'm hitting kind of a lot of 9-irons, 8-irons and 7-irons and that's kind of what I've based my game on the past couple years and when I'm able to put those irons in my hands I feel like I can attack pins.

"I can be smart and give myself maybe some closer birdies than other guys can and obviously we rolled in a few today and just got to keep that up."

Long finished the day at five-under 67, one stroke back and alone in second place. Four golfers, including world No. 5 Xander Schauffele, share third place at four-under 68.

Homa, enjoying his best season on the tour at age 30, carded birdies on Nos. 1, 5, 7, 11 and 15 to survive bogeys on the second and 14th holes. He is part of a logjam for seventh place that also includes Justin Thomas and Jon Rahm, Nos. 2 and 3 in the world rankings.

Two other former Cal golfers, Brandon Hagy and Byeong Hun-An, are far back in the pack and unlikely to survive the cut on Friday afternoon.

Hagy only got in six holes before the action was halted, but was four over and sat in a tie for 100th place.

Hun-An, who played one season at Cal in 2011, sits in 111th place after a seven-under 79 that included two birdies but also seven bogeys and a triple-bogey 7 on the par-4 third hole.

Cover photo of Collin Morikawa by Kyle Robertson, Columbus Dispatch for USA Today