Collin Morikawa on devastating collapse at Tournament of Champions: "It sucks"

Collin Morikawa was eight shots ahead of Jon Rahm after the Spaniard bogeyed his first hole in the final round at Kapalua, but what ensued on the back nine was incredible...

Matt Chivers's picture
Mon, 9 Jan 2023
Collin Morikawa on devastating collapse at Tournament of champions: "It sucks"

Collin Morikawa admitted "it sucks" not to be holding the winner's trophy at the Sentry Tournament of Champions and the memory of squandering a six-shot lead "is going to hurt."

Morikawa faced the media in a frank and honest fashion after losing to Jon Rahm by two shots at the Plantation Course in Maui, having led by seven shots at one stage.

But the timing was key. The 2021 Open champion made his first bogey at the venue in 86 holes on 14, around the same time Rahm holed his eagle putt on 15 to tie up the scores on 26-under.

Morikawa made three consecutive bogeys, which no player had done all week in Kapalua, to fall two shots behind. Rahm sealed the deal with a birdie on the 18th hole to reach 27-under and open a three-shot lead.

The American was an albatross away from a playoff, but this wasn't to be. This is only the eighth instance on the PGA Tour where a player has held a six-shot lead after 54 holes and hasn't completed the victory.

"I don't know. It sucks. You work so hard and you give yourself these opportunities and just bad timing on bad shots and kind of added up really quickly," Morikawa said.
"Don't know what I'm going to learn from this week, but it just didn't seem like it was that far off. It really wasn't. Yeah, it sucks.
"My game hasn't felt like that in a very long time. We saw, I saw little specs of it throughout the fall season and was never able to put four rounds together. We're still getting there, but for me, I know there's still a lot of work to do. Obviously, it shows today, but I'm willing to put in that work.
"I think at this point now it's just kind of going to hopefully just push me more and more to really figure out what it's going to take for 72 holes.
"I'm going to take two days off and enjoy Hawaii a little bit more. It's not going to be as great, but it will still be good. But, yeah, my mind's already thinking about what we need to do. It's going to hurt, but I got to get over it because we're still in the very early parts of the season."

The 25-year-old admitted this was probably the biggest disappointment of his professional career so far. Once Rahm rolled in his crucial eagle putt on the par-5 15th hole, Morikawa saw the leaderboard and knew he had an animal breathing down his neck.

The writing was on the wall on this hole when Morikawa chunked a pitch to the green which effectively returned to his feet. His approach to the 16th hole was also short which led to another bogey.

It must be said that Rahm feels at home at Kapalua. He came second behind Cameron Smith in 2022 and he is 60-under through his last two appearances at the Sentry Tournament of Champions.

It was his third win in his last six starts and a victory at the first Elevated Event of 2023. The 28-year-old even lost belief after making a bogey on his very first hole on Sunday. He went on to make nine birdies to card a 10-under 63.

"I needed to play good and he needed to make a couple of mistakes," Rahm said.
"If you told me at the beginning of the round, after that bogey, I was going to do what I did I don't know if I would have believed you."