Collin Morikawa Two Shots Behind Tiger, Six Off Lead at Masters

Former Cal golfer within striking distance. The other ex-Bears standout in the field, Max Homa, is at 2-over
Collin Morikawa Two Shots Behind Tiger, Six Off Lead at Masters
Collin Morikawa Two Shots Behind Tiger, Six Off Lead at Masters /

The focus of the Masters is on Tiger Woods, who had an impressive opening round, while former Cal golfers Collin Morikawa and Max Homa are still within striking distance of the lead, but are also in danger of missing the cut.

Morikawa fired a 1-over-par 73 in the first round at Augusta National Golf Club on Thursday, leaving him two shots behind Woods, who shot a 1-under 71, and six strokes behind first-round leader Sungjae Im, who fired a 5-under-par 67 to take a one-stroke lead over Cameron Smith, who is alone in second place.

Homa finished with a 2-over-par 74 on Thursday. That ties him with 15 other players for 45th place after one round, so he has to be concerned about making the cut on Friday.

After the first two rounds, the low 50 players and ties qualify for the final 36 holes.

Morikawa is tied for 31st, so he is not assured of making the cut, but he is still close enough to contend.

Morikawa is trying to shake off a shaky month of March, as he struggled in all three events he played last month. He missed the cut at The Players Championship, finished 68th at the Valspar Championship and lost to Abraham Ancer 7 and 6 in the round of 16 at the World Gold Championship Match Play event.

He dropped from No. 2 in the world rankings to No. 3.

And he did not start well at the Masters on Thursday, recording a bogey-5 on the first hole.  He finished the front nine at 2-over, but got back to even by getting birdies on the 12th hole, where he recorded a 2, and the 15th, where he holed a long birdie putt.

But he gave a stroke back on the 17th hole before getting a par on the 18th hole.

Collin Morikawa scorecard front 9
Collin Morikawa score back nine

Morikawa is in a group with Dustin Johnson and Billy Horschel, and they tee off at 7:12 a.m. Friday.

Homa, who is 37th in the current world rankings, had an erratic round.  He birdied the second hole, then bogeyed Nos. 4 and 6.  He got back to even par on the front nine by making birdie on No. 9, but he had bogeys on both the 11th and 12th holes. He got to 1-over by getting a birdie-3 on the par-4 14th hole, but he finished his day with a bogey-5 on the par-4 18th hole.

Max Homa 1 scorecard
Max Homa scorecard

When Homa finished his round, he was eight strokes behind the leader at time, Cameron Smith, who was at 6 under par through 17 holes. However, Smith had a double-bogey 6 on the final hole to finish at 4-under, tied with a number of golfers who were still on the course at the time.

Homa tees off at 10:08 a.m. Friday.

Homa has finished in the top 20 in each of his last four events, and he placed 13th in his most recent tournament, The Players Championship, which concluded March 14.

Max Homa brushes the sand away on the green. Photo by Katie Goodale, USA TODAY Sports
Max Homa brushes the sand away on the green. Photo by Katie Goodale, USA TODAY Sports

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Cover photo of Collin Morikawa by Katie Goodale, USA TODAY Sports

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.