Morikawa rips up golf’s history books to be crowned Champion Golfer of the Year
Collin Morikawa is the Champion Golfer of the Year after winning The Open by two shots over Jordan Spieth.
Only time will tell how golf historians will look back on this strange period for the sport – for any sport.
Morikawa will look back on this period with great fondness after bookending the Covid era of majors with wins at the PGA Championship and The Open.
The Californian started the day one back of Louis Oosthuizen and two clear of Jordan Spieth. After a tense front-nine battle between the three, Morikawa streaked clear with consecutive birdies into the turn and never looked back as his putter caught fire coming home.
Such was his dominance over the last 27 holes, Morikawa’s last bogey of The Open came on the fifth hole on Saturday. Incredibly, that was also the last time he carded a score other than a three or four.
His final score of 265 – 15-under-par – also breaks the 72-hole record at Royal St George’s.
But most impressively of all, it means Morikawa writes himself into the record books as the first player to win on his debut in two major championships, having lifted the Wanamaker Trophy at the first attempt last year.
Morikawa is just the 10th player to win on his Open debut, joining Willie Park Sr, Tom Kidd, Mungo Park, Jock Hutchison, Denny Shute, Ben Hogan, Tony Lema, Tom Watson and Ben Curtis.
He has started just eight major championships and won 25 per cent of them. A seemingly impossible ratio.
And to top it all off, he’s really, really good at victory speeches…
Anything else?
Lee Westwood has now played in 88 major championships. That’s the most in men’s golf history without a victory.
The 2021 edition smashed the record for the most rounds in the 60s at The Open with 169. The previous record was Turnberry in 1994, which yielded 148.
And a shout out to Bob MacIntyre – the sole Scot in the field this week – whose tie for 8th means he now, with two from two, has as many Open top 10s as Colin Montgomerie.
- RELATED: What’s in Morikawa’s bag?
- Visit our dedicated Open Championship website for more from Royal St George’s
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Alex Perry
Alex has been the editor of National Club Golfer since 2017. A Devonian who enjoys wittering on about his south west roots, Alex moved north to join NCG after more than a decade in London, the last five of which were with ESPN. Away from golf, Alex follows Torquay United and spends too much time playing his PlayStation or his guitar and not enough time practising his short game.
