Cal Sports Report

Collin Morikawa Tied for Lead Halfway Through Tour Championship

Former Cal golfer Morikawa and Viktor Hovland are both at 16-under after two rounds in pursuit of FedEx Cup

Jake Curtis

Collin Morikawa could not quite match his spectacular first-round score, but he put up another impressive number on Friday and is tied for the lead halfway through the Tour Championship.

After shooting a career-best 61 on Thursday, the former Cal standout followed that with a 6-under-par 64 in the second round at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Ga. It leaves Morikawa tied for the lead with Viktor Hovland and they battle for the $18 million first prize that goes to the winner of the FedEx Cup.

Morikawa has yet to record a bogey over the first two days, and his two-round score of 15-under-par 125 is easily the best in the 30-player field. But he started the event nine shots behind Scottie Scheffler and seven shots behind Hovland in the staggered scoring based on the players’ FedEx Cup standings coming into this event.

Hovland shot a 6-under-par 64 on Friday, and he held a two-stroke lead over Morikawa after Hovland dropped in a birdie putt on the 17th hole. But Morikawa, playing in the final twosome just behind Hovland, sank a birdie putt on the 17th to get within one, and after Hovland parred the final hole, Morikawa recorded another birdie on the 18th hole to pull into a tie.

Morikawa and Hovland have a two-shot lead over Scheffler, who rebounded from a poor first round with a 5-uander-par round of 65 on Friday, leaving him alone in third place at 14-under.

One stroke behind Scheffler is Keegan Bradley, who played in the final pairing with Morikawa and carded a 3-under-par 67 to leave him at 13-under, three strokes behind the leaders. 

Jon Rahm (5-under 65 on Friday) and Xander Schauffele (6-under 64) are next at 12-under.

"If I was going to tell myself I was going to be 16 under through two days with my total score or whatever you want to call it, I would have taken that," Morikawa said. "Look, I think with [the] wind being down and this course, if you keep it in front of yourself, it's obviously gettable. There's going to be low scores. There's going to continue to be low scores this weekend.

"Greens are starting to firm up. You're still going to see guys firing at pins. You have a few short holes that you have to take advantage of. The par-5s are very gettable. It's not going to end at 16 under. There's going to be a lot more low scores, a lot more birdies made. I'm going to have to continue that heading into the next two days."

Morikawa, who is ranked 20th in the world, is looking for his first PGA Tour victory since he captured The Open in July 2021 for his second major title. The odd thing this week is that he might record the lowest four-round score in this event and still not win the FedEx Cup since he started the week so far behind.

"I hit one bad shot in the practice round, tried to figure it out, was out on the range two more hours," Morikawa said. "Sometimes just being out there when you don't realize that you're out there for that long of a period, you find one thing that you hope works. I mean, I've done that for the past few years, hoping that we're going to find that one thing that clicks, and right now, I'm going to stick with it. Why not?"

Morikawa's birdie on No. 12

Max Homa, the other former Cal golfer in this 30-man field, is still in the hunt after shooting a 3-under-par 67 on Friday, putting him at 7-under, nine shots off the lead.

Homa bogeyed his fourth hole of the day, but had four birdies the rest of the way, including birdies on both the 17th and 18th holes.

Based on being sixth in the FedEx Cup standings heading into the Tour Championship. Homa started this tournament at 4 under par, six strokes off the lead.  He has lost ground since the start of this event.

Homa's birdie on No. 11

Cover photo of Collin Morikawa by John David Mercer, 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.

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