Collin Morikawa Advances in Match-Play Event -- Barely

Outstanding drive on the final hole saves the former Cal golfer, who reaches round of 16

Former Cal golfer Collin Morikawa nearly blew a big lead in Friday's final round of group play in the World Golf Championship Match Play tournament, but he held on by the skin of his teeth to advance to the round of 16 in this event in Austin Texas.

Morikawa will face Abraham Ancer in Saturday's round of 16 match play competition, but Morikawa is probably relieved he is still playing. He did not assure himself a spot in Saturday's round until the very last hole on Friday, when a near-perfect tee shot on the 18th helped him beat Jason Kokrak and avoid a major collapse.

"There's been a few putts this week that I think anyone here on the property could have hit better than I did," he said regarding his bogey on the 17th that put him in jeopardy. "I really only needed to two-putt and make him make a par and make a birdie, but the drive on 18 was nice, walk up and see it on the middle of the green, and all I needed to do was two-putt and get out."

Morikawa's drive on the 18th hole when he needed to at least tie the hole to advance.

What a bounce 😮
What a shot 👏@Collin_Morikawa's drive on 18 helped secure the final spot in the Round of 16 @DellMatchPlay. pic.twitter.com/F5mJI8mzJ8

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 26, 2022

The 64 players were divided into 16 groups of four players each, with every player facing the other three in his group in match play one day at a time.  Morikawa has struggled the past two weeks, missing the cut at the Players Championship and finishing 68th at the Valspar Championship last week.

"Over the past two weeks, starting with the Players, I've just been giving away too many shots to really try to contend in these tournaments," he said, "and out here in match play you can't do that. So it's slowly been progressing, getting better as the days go on and hopefully we just keep minimizing those mistakes, especially with the gold tournaments coming up.".

Morikawa got off to a good start on Wednesday by beating Robert MacIntyre 2 and 1. But on Thursday he was ahead 3-up after 13 holes against Sergio Garcia, but lost three of the final five holes to finish tied. 

Heading into Friday's final day of group play, Garcia and Morikawa were tied for the group lead with one win and one tie, while Kokrak had one win and one loss.

Garcia was eliminated when he lost to MacIntyre 4 and 2, but Kokrak could take the group if beat Morikawa on Friday or force a playoff with Morikawa if two finished tied.

Morikawa seemed to have the match in hand when he led 4-up after nine holes, but Kokrak won four of the next six holes to tie the match. Morikawa birdied the 16th to go back in front, but his nervous three-putt on the 17th tied the match again.

Kokrak needed to win the final hole to win the match and advance, but Morikawa applied the pressure when he put his tee shot on the green, the first player this week to drive the green on that hole. He two-putted to win the hole and win the match 1-up, even though he only needed to tie to advance to Saturday's action.

The other former Golden Bears golfer in the 64-player field, Max Homa, failed to advance out of the group stage after losing to Dustin Johnson 1-up on Friday. He needed to beat Johnson, then win a playoff to advance, but it was not to be.

Besides Morikawa and Ancer, here are the other seven pairings for Saturday:

Jon Rahm vs. Brooks Koepka

Dustin Johnson vs.Richard Bland

Tyrrell Hatton vs. Seamus Power

Takumi Kanaya vs. Corey Conners

Will Zalatoris vs. Kevin Na

Adam Scott vs. Kevin Kisner

Scottie Scheffler vs. Billy Horschell

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Cover photo of Collin Morikawa by Erich Schlegel, USA TODAY Sports

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Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

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