Ex-Cal Golfer Collin Morikawa Struggles for Second Straight Week

Former Golden Bear Brandon Hagy has a strong showing at Valspar Championship

Former Cal golfer Collin Morikawa has been holding the No. 2 world ranking for a while now, with several opportunities to move up to No. 1. But Morikawa struggled for the second straight event this weekend.

Morikawa's consistency of excellence has been one of his best traits, but after finishing among the top seven in his first five PGA Tour events of the 2022 season, he missed the cut at The Players Championship last week and finished in a tie for 68th in the Valspar Championship, which was completed Sunday.

Morikawa was not even the top finisher among Cal alumni this weekend. Brandon Hagy, who graduated from Cal's Haas School of Business in 2014, eagled the first hole on Sunday and shot a 3-under-par 68 in the final round to finish at 9-under and tied for 20th.

It's the first top-50 finish of 2022 for Hagy, who had missed the cut in in his previous four events and eight of the last nine. He started the weekend 204th in the official world golf rankings, but figures to move up.

It's unclear whether Morikawa will hang onto his No. 2 ranking after this weekend's struggle.

He was two strokes clear of the cut line at 4-under after two rounds at the Innisbrook Resort Copperhead Course in Palm Harbor, Fla. That left him tied for 38th.

“I’ve made a couple of mistakes” said Morikawa after the second round, according to the Tampa Bay Times. “The putting hasn’t been great. I feel like I’m driving it well off the tee, which is obviously helpful on the fairway, but you have to still make your putts and hopefully they can start dropping over the weekend.”

Morikawa then shot 5 shots over par over the final two rounds.  On Sunday, Morikawa birdied two of the first four holes, but shot 4-over the rest of the way to finish with a 2-over-par 73 for a four-round total of 1-over-par 285.

It's the first time since June of 2020 that Morikawa finished out of the top 50 in consecutive events. And he ended that two-event slump two years ago by winning his next tournament, shooting 19 under par to capture the Workday Charity Open in Dublin, Ohio, in July  2020

Morikawa, 25, has five PGA Tour wins, including two major championships -- the 2020 PGA Championship and the 2021 Open Championship, winning both on his debut.

One other former Cal golfer, James Hahn, played in the Valspar Championship, but he failed to make the cut. He shot a 1-under 70 and an even-par 71 in his two rounds to finish two strokes off the cut line. 

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Cover photo of Collin Morikawa by Jasen Vinlove, USA TODAY Sports

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