Cal Golf: Collin Morikawa Embarks on 3-Week Hike That Can Be Worth $15 million

Collin Morikawa was a terrific underdog story on the PGA tour just a few weeks ago.

Not anymore.

The 23-year-old Cal grad enters The Northern Trust at TPC Boston on Thursday with a legitimate shot at winning the FedEx Cup championship and golf’s Player of the Year award.

The Northern Trust is the first of three events that will culminate in the selection of the FedEx Cup winner. The field of 125 at Boston will send the 70 highest-ranked players in the standings to the BMW Championships a week from now at Olympic Fields Country Club near Chicago.

From there, the top 30 left standing will play at the Tour Championship, Sept. 4-7 at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.

If Morikawa performs well enough, he can emerge atop the FedEx standings and win $15 million.

What chance does he have?

Well, Morikawa begins play Thursday at No. 5 in the official world rankings and No. 2 in the FedEx Cup standings. He trails only Justin Thomas, whom he beat in a playoff to win the Workday Charity Open in mid-July.

Thomas, who has nine top-10 finishes this season, leads the FedEx Cup standings with 2,458 points. Morikawa is second at 1,902. The winner at Boston this week picks up 1,500 points, so there is plenty of room to climb — or drop — in the standings.

Morikawa also lost in a playoff at the Charles Schwab Challenge in mid-June before capturing his first career major title — the only one contested so far this year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic — two weeks at the PGA Championship at Harding Park in San Francisco.

"I'd obviously say I'd want to win but to come out and finish second in this shortened season, to get two wins down the stretch in the past month and a half, is pretty special," Morikawa told Sky Sports News. "It's definitely where you want to be.

"Everything is ramped up even more with triple points for the play-offs, so guys are going to come out ready to play golf. We have targets on our back because we're at the top of the leaderboards.”

THE DETAILS: Here are Thursday and Friday tee times for for Morikawa and fellow ex-Cal golfers Max Homa and Byeong Hun An.

Thursday (Eastern daylight times)

8:04 a.m. — Byeong Hun An on Tee No. 1

8:26 a.m. — Morikawa, Justin Thomas and Webb Simpson on Tee No. 10

12:22 p.m. — Max Homa on Tee No. 10

Friday (Eastern daylight times)

7:42 a.m. — Max Homa on Tee No. 1

1:06 p.m — Morikawa, Thomas and Simpson on Tee No. 1

12:44 p.m. — Byeong Hun An at 12:44 on Tee No. 10

HOW TO WATCH: The Golf Channel and CBS will cover the tournament. Here’s the schedule (with Pacific daylight times).

Thursday: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the Golf Channel

Friday: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the Golf Channel

Saturday: 10 a.m. to noon on the Golf Channel; noon to 3 p.m. on CBS

Sunday: 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on the Golf Channel; 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on CBS.

WHAT’S AT STAKE: Morikawa already is Cal’s first golf major winner, and if he overtakes Thomas to win the FedEx Cup title he also would no doubt claim golf’s Player of the Year mantle.

Joel Beall of Golf World argued that Thomas and Morikawa are frontrunners for the award.

“It’s essentially a four-player showdown. Justin Thomas enters as the favorite with Collin Morikawa trailing just behind and Bryson DeChambeau and Webb Simpson a distant third and fourth,” Beall wrote.

“One could argue by winning the season’s only major, as well as defeating Thomas in a playoff at the Memorial, Morikawa has the conch heading into the postseason. A FedEx Cup/Tour Championship win, would seal POY for either.”

If Morikawa winds up as Player of the Year, he would join an exclusive group of former Cal athletes to earn such high-level distinction. Here are the others:

1933 — Helen Jacobs, tennis, AP Female Athlete of the Year

1935 — Helen Wills Moody, tennis, AP Female Athlete of the Year

1937 — Don Budge, tennis, AP Male Athlete of the Year

1938 — Don Budge, tennis, AP Male Athlete of the Year

1944 — Ann Curtis, swimming, AP Female Athlete of the Year

1958 — Jackie Jensen, baseball, American League MVP

2000 — Jeff Kent, baseball, National League MVP

2011 — Aaron Rodgers, football, NFL Player of the Year/AP Male Athlete of the Year

Morikawa addressed his skyrocketing place among Cal athletes in a recent interview with Jonathan Okanes of CalBears.com, the athletic department’s official website.

"Someone asked me if I think I am in the same conversation as Aaron Rodgers or Marshawn Lynch or these other guys, and I said absolutely not," he said. "I am not there. I'm 23. These guys have already imprinted their legacy on Cal and their sports. I'm just getting started."

WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY: Pat Mayo, DraftKings Fantasy National analyst, picks Morikawa to win on the Golf World website, suggesting he’s a steal for bettors at 22-to-1 odds,

“He’s coming off a major victory with two wins and a playoff loss since the restart, and now he has an opportunity to ascend to the No. 1 world ranking,” Mayo wrote. “Yet he’s still priced below the more name-brand elite players. At a course that rewards immaculate ball-striking, I’m willing to go with probably the best ball-striker in the world right now.”

Collin Wilson of the Action Network also likes Morikawa’s chances.

“Wash, rinse, repeat. Two of my last five writeups have been on Morikawa, each resulting in an outright win,” he said. “There really is no reason to change course at TPC Boston, where ball-striking and Greens in Regulation (GIR) should you guide you to your picks.

“The winner of this event will likely be hot with his irons and Morikawa is 14th in ball-striking and 23rd in GIR, so he ticks those boxes. Perhaps most importantly, the newly-minted PGA Champion ranks second in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green.”

*** My interview with Cal golf coach Walter Chun following Morikawa's victory at the PGA Championship two weeks ago:

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

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