When a 'fat' Collin Morikawa first met Zurich teammate Max Homa

There were plenty of soon-to-be-big names at the 2016 Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas Wichita Open, a tournament on the Korn Ferry Tour.

The leaderboard featured several players who would go on to win one or more titles on the PGA TOUR, including J.T. Poston (T6), Joel Dahmen (T13), Kurt Kitayama (T13), C.T. Pan (T19), and Keith Mitchell (T23), among others.

Then there was Team Homakawa, the duo of former Cal-Berkeley Bears Max Homa and Collin Morikawa, who are among the favorites at this week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans, the only two-man team event on the PGA TOUR. Back in Wichita in 2016, Morikawa was still an amateur standout at Cal; Homa had long since left Berkeley. The two SoCal products and Cal Golf luminaries met for a practice round, but to put it in rom-com terms, it wasn’t love at first sight.

“This is I think the first time I had ever met Max, and he did not care about me at all,” Morikawa said from New Orleans this week. “I was just some fat little kid walking around out of college just like on a sponsor's invite because I had won the (Trans-Mississippi Amateur) the year before.

“It was me, Max and Brandon Hagy, another Cal player,” Morikawa continued, “and I think I talked to Brandon almost the entire time, and Max just kind of like let me go. It's weird, everyone thinks Max is this outgoing guy. When I met him seven years ago, he was pretty shy. He was in his bubble. I was not in his friend group yet, especially back then.”

Although Homa might have come off as distant or imperious, he said from New Orleans that something like the opposite was true. He was nearly in awe of the young amateur.

Was Morikawa as good as he seemed?

“Yeah, in the nine holes we played, I obviously was really impressed,” Homa said, “but it’s hard – the first time you see somebody play golf, anybody out here can blow your mind for a day. So you just never know. It’s a big spot for a kid to be playing in a professional golf tournament.”

As it turned out, Morikawa was that good and then some. When it counted, Homa missed the cut, while Morikawa – who had just won the Sunnehanna Amateur – shot back-to-back 63s to get into a three-man sudden-death playoff with J.J. Spaun and Ollie Schniederjans, who won.

“I was like, all right, so it wasn't – it's not one of those, hey, he had a great practice round day,” Homa said. “He's a very, very good golfer. I think from the jump, anybody who played with him in college, I'm assuming high school, like there's just a golfing kind of gift there, but he doesn't take it for granted. It's not like he just sleeps on that. He works on it and tries to improve.

“But that first time we played,” Homa continued, “I was like, this guy really does not hit a bad shot. I would be lying if in the back of my head as somebody trying to get their card and progress in golf if I wasn't a bit jealous that a 20-year-old kid just absolutely dominated me for a week. But such is life. It was motivating to get better than a 20-year-old when I was 26.”

Reached for comment, fellow Cal product Hagy, who was there for that initial meeting between the two TOUR stars in Wichita, said he didn’t remember the practice round but could relate to Morikawa’s first impression of Homa as shy and somewhat reserved.

“Then obviously as the years went on, we became good buddies on the team,” said Hagy, who was in the same recruiting class as Homa.

Hagy also agreed with Homa’s wide-eyed assessment of Morikawa, with whom Hagy was paired at the 2016 Fortinet Championship at Silverado – Morikawa’s first TOUR start. Although Morikawa would miss the cut, he reeled off four consecutive late birdies to make it close.

“He ends up missing the cut by one,” Hagy said, “but I remember turning to my caddie … I was like, ‘That was impressive to see him try to make a run at that, first TOUR event or whatever it was.’ That was my first experience in competition with Collin seeing that type of golf.”

As time went on, Homa and Morikawa would grow close despite their age difference. They even had Team Homakawa jerseys made up for this week. Homa would never be called shy or reserved nowadays, and Morikawa laughs about all the accolades from the older player.

“There's way too much praise on my game,” he said. “… Max cares about the people that are close to him. You can feel the love, and I'm very appreciative of that, but I told Golf Channel earlier and I'm going to keep saying it this week, we played a practice round at Augusta, and the compliments have just kept coming.

“I didn't do it as much last week, and I probably should have,” Morikawa continued. “I was playing in front of him. I didn't turn around and give him a thumbs up, say, ‘Hey, go make birdie,’ but there will be a lot of praise (for Homa), as well, this week, trust me.”