10 Facts About Collin Morikawa

30/01/2024

Transcript

00:00 The term rising star might be a bit patronising for a golfer of Colin Morikawa's ability.

00:06 A double major winner by the time he was just 25 years old,

00:09 golf's rising star has arguably already risen and will no doubt continue to ascend to the very, very top through his career.

00:17 But still a fresh face on tour, let's get to know more about one of the best ball strikers currently on tour.

00:25 The son of Debbie and Boleyn Morikawa, Colin was born in Los Angeles, California and is of Chinese/Japanese descent.

00:33 Much of his father's side of the family are from Hawaii and he still has many relatives who live there today.

00:39 Despite having no living relatives currently in Japan, he recently visited the country for the very first time.

00:46 He said, "There was an instant connection and that was something I had never felt.

00:51 It felt amazing, I felt that love and I felt that this is where my heritage and my life had started."

00:56 Morikawa had an unbelievably decorated amateur career.

01:00 He played his collegiate golf at the University of California in Berkeley from 2015 to 2019,

01:07 winning five times including the 2019 Pac-12 Championship.

01:12 Aside from these pretty historic collegiate wins, he won the Western Junior, Trans-Mississippi Amateur,

01:18 Sunnyhana Amateur and Northeast Amateur Championships during his career.

01:23 Finally, all before he turned pro, he played on the winning Arnold Palmer Cup team in 2017 and 2018

01:30 and was also on the winning Walker Cup team in 2017.

01:33 Understandably, with this much success, Morikawa was ranked the number one amateur in the world in May 2018.

01:40 He then turned professional in 2019 at the RBC Canadian Open.

01:45 He finished tied 14th on debut and followed that up with a tie for second place at the 3M Open

01:52 and then a tie for fourth place at the John Deere Classic.

01:55 With that finish, he secured his PGA Tour card for the following season after just three events on tour.

02:02 Not content with that though, Morikawa then won his first PGA Tour event at the Barracuda Championship just a few months later.

02:09 Safe to say he's not looked back from there.

02:12 Speaking of beginnings, Colin Morikawa had one of the most decorated starts to a PGA Tour career in history.

02:18 He did this by making 22 consecutive cuts.

02:21 That record is only bettered by one Tiger Woods, who did it 25 times.

02:26 Morikawa became the first American to win the Race to Dubai on the then European Tour.

02:31 He won the yearly Order of Merit thanks to his win at the 2021 Open Championship

02:36 as well as winning the DP World Tour Championship right at the end of the season.

02:41 At the time of recording, Morikawa has won two of golf's majors and he won them both on his debut appearance.

02:47 In 2020, he won the PGA Championship at Harding Park in California

02:52 and then in 2021, he won the Open Championship at Royal St. George's.

02:57 By winning these two majors on debut, he became the first male golfer to achieve that feat.

03:02 He is currently engaged to his long-term partner, Catherine Zhu.

03:05 The pair met in 2017 while both at college and Zhu herself played collegiate golf at Pepperdine University in Los Angeles.

03:13 Morikawa is a big sports fan outside of golf, closely following both baseball and basketball.

03:19 Being a local to California and LA, his baseball team is the LA Dodgers while he supports the LA Lakers in basketball.

03:26 The course he grew up playing on is called Chevy Chase Country Club, also in California.

03:31 It's a truly fascinating little golf course which has just nine holes with 10 different greens and 36 different tees.

03:39 The course didn't have a driving range so Morikawa did all of his practice out on the course,

03:44 making up his own holes on the very unique layout.

03:47 And finally, did you know that Colin Morikawa loves cereal?

03:51 Yes, he loves cereal so much that he has the names of his favorite cereal brands printed on his wedges.

03:58 So if you take a look at the back of his 56 degree wedge, he currently has printed on it

04:03 Frosted Flakes, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Captain Crunch and Cocoa Puffs.

04:08 However, it is worth noting that he puts the milk in before he puts the cereal in, which obviously isn't conventional.

04:15 This is something which fellow tour pro Justin Thomas has given him plenty of stick for online.

04:20 So there you have it, 10 interesting facts you now know about Colin Morikawa.

04:27 With two majors already under his belt, do you think he'll win all four by the end of his career?

04:33 To join the discussion and to find more facts about your favorite players, you can visit the tour section on the Golf Monthly website.

04:40 .

10 Facts About Collin Morikawa

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