00:00The term rising star might be a bit patronising for a golfer of Colin Morikawa's ability.
00:06A double major winner by the time he was just 25 years old,
00:09golf's rising star has arguably already risen and will no doubt continue to ascend to the very, very top through
00:16his career.
00:17But still a fresh face on tour, let's get to know more about one of the best ball strikers currently
00:22on tour.
00:25The son of Debbie and Baleen Morikawa, Colin was born in Los Angeles, California and is of Chinese-Japanese descent.
00:33Much of his father's side of the family are from Hawaii and he still has many relatives who live there
00:38today.
00:39Despite having no living relatives currently in Japan, he recently visited the country for the very first time.
00:46He said,
00:53And I felt that this is where my heritage and my life had started.
00:57Morikawa had an unbelievably decorated amateur career.
01:00He played his collegiate golf at the University of California in Berkeley from 2015 to 2019,
01:07winning five times, including the 2019 Pac-12 Championship.
01:12Aside from these pretty historic collegiate wins,
01:14he won the Western Junior, Trans-Mississippi Amateur, Sunny Harner Amateur
01:19and Northeast Amateur Championships during his career.
01:23Finally, all before he turned pro,
01:25he played on the winning Arnold Palmer Cup team in 2017 and 2018
01:29and was also on the winning Walker Cup team in 2017.
01:34Understandably, with this much success,
01:36Morikawa was ranked the number one amateur in the world in May 2018.
01:40He then turned professional in 2019 at the RBC Canadian Open.
01:45He finished tied 14th on debut
01:47and followed that up with a tie for second place at the 3M Open
01:52and then a tie for fourth place at the John Deere Classic.
01:55With that finish,
01:56he secured his PGA Tour card for the following season after just three events on tour.
02:02Not content with that though,
02:04Morikawa then won his first PGA Tour event at the Barracuda Championship just a few months later.
02:10Safe to say,
02:10he's not looked back from there.
02:12Speaking of beginnings,
02:13and Colin Morikawa had one of the most decorated starts to a PGA Tour career in history.
02:18He did this by making 22 consecutive cuts.
02:21That record is only bettered by one Tiger Woods,
02:24who did it 25 times.
02:26Morikawa became the first American to win the race to Dubai on the then European Tour.
02:31He won the yearly order of merit thanks to his win at the 2021 Open Championship,
02:36as well as winning the DP World Tour Championship right at the end of the season.
02:41At the time of recording,
02:42Morikawa has won two of golf's majors,
02:44and he won them both on his debut appearance.
02:47In 2020,
02:49he won the PGA Championship at Harding Park in California,
02:52and then in 2021,
02:54he won the Open Championship at Royal St. George's.
02:57By winning these two majors on debut,
02:59he became the first male golfer to achieve that feat.
03:02He is currently engaged to his long-term partner,
03:04Catherine Zhu.
03:06The pair met in 2017 while both at college,
03:09and Zhu herself played collegiate golf at Pepperdine University in Los Angeles.
03:13Morikawa is a big sports fan outside of golf,
03:17closely following both baseball and basketball.
03:20Being a local to California and LA,
03:22his baseball team is the LA Dodgers,
03:24while he supports the LA Lakers in basketball.
03:27The course he grew up playing on is called
03:28Chevy Chase Country Club,
03:30also in California.
03:31It's a truly fascinating little golf course,
03:34which has just nine holes,
03:36with 10 different greens,
03:37and 36 different tees.
03:39The course didn't have a driving range,
03:41so Morikawa did all of his practice out on the course,
03:44making up his own holes on the very unique layout.
03:48And finally,
03:48did you know that Colin Morikawa loves cereal?
03:52Yes,
03:52he loves cereal so much that he has the names of his favourite cereal brands
03:56printed on his wedges.
03:58So,
03:59if you take a look at the back of his 56 degree wedge,
04:02he currently has printed on it,
04:04Frosted Flakes,
04:05Cinnamon Toast Crunch,
04:06Captain Crunch,
04:07and Cocoa Puffs.
04:08However,
04:09it is worth noting that he puts the milk in before he puts the cereal in,
04:13which obviously isn't conventional.
04:15This is something which fellow tour pro Justin Thomas has given him plenty of stick for online.
04:22So,
04:23there you have it,
04:2410 interesting facts you now know about Colin Morikawa.
04:27With two majors already under his belt,
04:29do you think he'll win all four by the end of his career?
04:33To join the discussion and to find more facts about your favourite players,
04:37you can visit the tour section on the Golf Monthly website.
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