Cal Golf: From 99th to 23rd, Collin Morikawa Scorches the Back Nine in Scotland

The world's No. 4 player closes with a 30 and now trails the leaders by six strokes.

Collin Morikawa, mired in 99th place at the turn, scorched the back nine at the Scottish Open on Friday, soaring into a tie for 23rd place entering the weekend.

The 24-year-old Cal grad, playing as a pro in Europe for the first time, was tied for 73rd place after the opening round at The Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland, in a tuneup before next week’s British Open.

Then he bogeyed the first and seventh holes Friday to sink nearly out of the top-100 in the field of 156 golfers.

But the world’s fourth-ranked player peeled off five birdies on the back nine. He finished the round at four-under 67, moving him to five under for the tournament, six strokes off the lead but at least in striking distance with two days to play.

World No. 1 Jon Rahm of Spain, Thomas Detry of Belgium and first-round leader Jack Senior all share the lead at 11 under. Rahm and Detry each fired 65s on Friday.

Senior, a 35-year-old Englishman who is not ranked among the world’s top-300, made four birdies over the final 12 holes to finish with a 67 on Friday.

George Coetzee of South Africa and a pair of British golfers, Matt Fitzpatrick and Lee Westwood, are tied for fourth at minus-10.

Among other big names, No. 3 Justin Thomas shot a 69 and is tied for seventh at eight under, while 19th-ranked Scottie Scheffeler had the day’s best round, a bogey-free, eight-under 63 and climbed into a tie for 11th at minus-7.

Fifth-ranked Xander Schauffele carded a 70 in the second round and is part of the 16-way traffic jam that includes Morikawa.

Rahm, coming off a victory at the U.S. Open three weeks ago, opened Friday with a 29 over the back nine and moved to the lead. He had birdies on Nos. 10, 13, 14, 16, 17 and 18.

“It was unbelievable,” said Thomas, who was grouped with Rahm. “He very realistically could have shot 9 under on the front nine. It was pretty impressive.”

Only a little more impressive than Morikawa’s effort over the same nine holes a couple hours later.

The four-time PGA tour winner birdied No. 11 to climb to 90th place.

Then he birdied the par-3 12th hole and moved to a tie for 64th.

With another birdie on the 15th, Morikawa ascended to 46th place.

He followed that with a birdie on No. 16, moving to 34th.

And, finally, by closing the round with his sixth birdie of the day on No. 18, Morikawa had rocketed up 76 spots in a span of a couple hours.

Cover photo Collin Morikawa by Michael Madrid, USA Today

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