Cal Golf: Batch of Birdies Keeps Collin Morikawa Among Tour Championship Leaders

Cal grad made birdies on five of his final seven holes to take fifth place into Monday

Collin Morikawa began with a near-miracle shot, stumbled briefly, then finished with a flurry of birdies to keep himself among the leaders at the Tour Championship.

Dustin Johnson is threatening to run away with the $15 million FedEx cup first prize on Monday at the East Lake Golf Course in Atlanta. But Morikawa surged toward the top of the leaderboard by making five birdies on his final seven holes.

The 23-year-old Cal grad shot a third-round 67 and is at 12 under through 54 holes. He is in fifth place, seven strokes behind Johnson, who has a five-stroke edge on the field at 19 under.

But Morikawa is within two strokes of second place, which is worth $5 million.

Tee times: Morikawa will be paired Monday with Daniel Berger, going off at 10:35 a.m. PST. NBC's coverage of the Tour Championship's final round runs from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Morikawa began the day tied for fifth, and got everyone’s attention from the start on Sunday. He put his second shot on the first hole into the bunker, then holed out a spectacular 47-foot chip from there for the first of his seven birdies on the day, prompting him to thrust his arms into the air while climbing out of the sand trap.

“You get a little lucky,” Morikawa said. “All I was trying to do was give myself a 10-foot par putt. That was my first celebration in a while.” I was glad to get off to that good start.”

He ran into trouble with bogeys on Nos. 3, 4 and 7 and dropped back into a tie for 11th place.

Morikawa made little headway until carding a birdie on the par-3 ninth hole, the third straight day be achieved that on one of the course’s toughest holes.

He then wrapped birdies on 12 and 13, then 15 and 16 around a bogey at 14, pushing him to 11 under. After a par on the 17th, Morikawa again showed his skills out of the bunker.

His chip shot rolled to barely one foot from the 18th hole and he tapped in for his fifth birdie since the 12th.

“I just feel really good out of bunkers,” Morikawa said. “It wasn’t an easy shot, but I had a really good lie and I was able to take advantage. It’s nice to walk off with a birdie finishing the third round.”

Morikawa is two strokes back of Xander Schaufele and Justin Thomas, who are tied for second at minus-14, and one behind Jon Rahm, fourth at minus-13.

It will be difficult for anyone to catch Johnson, who began the tournament at minus-10 based on his spot atop the FedEx Cup standings, and shot a 64 on Sunday, with seven birdies and just one bogey.

"I've got a lot of confidence in everything I'm doing right now," Johnson said.

*** Here is the complete FedEx Cup payoff for all 30 players at the Tour Championship:

1. $15 million

2. $5 million

3. $4 million

4. $3 million

5. $2.5 million

6. $1.9 million

7. $1.3 million

8. $1.1 million

9. $950,000

10, $830,000

11. $750,000

12. $705,00

13. $660,000

14. $620,000

15. $595,000

16. $570,000

17. $550,000

18. $535,000

19. $520,000

20. $505,000

21. $490,000

22. $478,000

23. $466,000

24. $456,000

25. $445,000

26. $425,000

27. $415,000

28. $415,000

29. $405,000

30. $395,000

.

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

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