Cal Alum Collin Morikawa Tied For Second at Wells Fargo Golf After Opening Round

He is three strokes back of leader Xander Schauffele after shooting a 67 at Quail Hollow.

Collin Morikawa lines up a shot. / Photo by Jim Dedmon, USA Today

Collin Morikawa played flawless golf through 17 holes before a bogey left him with a first-round score of 4-under 67 at the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, NC on Thursday.

The 27-year-old Cal grad is three strokes off the pace and part of a three-way tie for second place entering Friday’s second round.

Fellow Golden Bear Max Homa, twice a winner at this event over the past five years, shot a 2-under 69 and is tie for 12th place.

A third former Cal golfer, Byeong Hun An, carded a 70 and is tied for 16th.

World No. 4 Xander Schauffele included an eagle and six birdies in opening round of 7-under 64, which gives him a three-stroke edge entering Friday as players pursue a $20 million total purse.

Morikawa is tied with No. 2-ranked Rory McIlroy and Alex Noren after each posted opening rounds of 67.

Ranked No. 13, Morikawa began play on the back nine and opened with a birdie on the 10th hole. He added birdies on 15, 1, 5 and 7 before making bogey on No. 9 just before he went to the clubhouse. 

Coming off a tie for third at the Masters and a ninth-place finish at RBC Heritiage over recent weeks, Morikawa is feeling some positive momentum with the season's second major, the PGA Championship, just a week away.

"I want to go on a run essentially, right? You want to go on a nice stretch of golf," Morikawa said. "So it was nice to obviously have that finish at the Masters even though it didn't play out the way I wanted, but knowing that this week is going to be great prep especially going into next week, just got to dial in everything as much as we can and be ready."

McIlroy had a far more volatile round, featuring an eagle, six birdies and four bogeys. Noren, a native of Sweden and the world’s 57th-ranked player, assembled his round with seven birdies and three bogeys.

Seven golfers, including Justin Thomas and Jason Day, are just one stroke back of that threesome at minus-3.

Homa, who finished eighth at Quail Hollow a year ago after winning in 2019 and ’22, started the day badly with bogeys on two of the first three holes.

But the 33-year-old, ranked 10th in the world, recovered to post six birdies and just two more bogeys to finish in a four-way tie that also includes Jordan Spieth.

An, who is ranked No. 32 and playing well in recent weeks, was all over the map in his opening round. He merged seven birdies with four bogeys and a double-bogey to wind up at 70 and tied with 14 others.