Collin Morikawa finds silver lining as runner-up at TOUR Championship

ATLANTA – Collin Morikawa began this week’s TOUR Championship knowing his deficit would be incredibly difficult to overcome.

Before he even hit a shot, Morikawa was six back of Scottie Scheffler, who started at 10-under with the FedExCup Starting Strokes format, courtesy of his No. 1 position in the FedExCup.

Morikawa’s only goal: Shoot the low 72-hole gross score and let the chips fall where they may.

Morikawa left East Lake Golf Club content knowing he did that, though it wasn’t enough to pass Scheffler. Morikawa finished 22-under after 72 holes, one better than Sahith Theegala and two better than Scheffler on the gross leaderboard. Add in the Starting Strokes and Morikawa finished solo-second, four behind Scheffler.

“Ultimately Scottie was second or third on that (gross) leaderboard, so it didn't really help my case,” Morikawa said. “I knew six shots was a lot to catch up, but I know I've made it up before. It was just nice to put together four good rounds throughout a week."

That’s been the pain point for Morikawa all season. He frequently put himself in contention, more so than any year in recent memory, but failed to play his best golf in the biggest moments. He was in the final group with Scheffler at the Masters and the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday. He lost both to Scheffler. He was in the last pairing at the PGA Championship in May but shot even-par to finish six back of Xander Schauffele. He didn’t win a PGA TOUR event in 2024.

He lost Sunday, too, but it was a different version of Morikawa. Don’t let the final leaderboard fool you. Morikawa shot 5-under 66 and pushed Scheffler.

“I fought hard, and all week, honestly, that's kind of the golf I missed playing,” said Morikawa.

The lead ballooned as high as seven shots after two holes. At that moment, Scheffler’s coronation seemed imminent. Might as well stop the tournament at the turn, nobody was catching Scheffler. But Morikawa cut it to as few as two after eight holes, bouncing back from an early bogey with three birdies. In the final pairing with Scheffler, Morikawa birdied Nos. 4 and 6, while Scheffer played the same stretch in 1-over. Morikawa capitalized when Scheffler made another bogey at the par-4 eighth that featured a shanked bunker shot. He watched Scheffler’s par putt lip out, then drained a birdie putt on top of him to cut the deficit to two.

“It felt like anyone's game,” Morikawa said.

But just as quickly as Morikawa pushed the door open, Scheffler slammed it shut. The world No. 1 birdied the next three holes, sticking it within 5 feet at the ninth and 10th holes, then rolling in a 15-foot birdie at the 11th. Morikawa never got closer than four shots from there.

“It's those little momentum shifts, that if I make one birdie in those last three holes I'm three back, four back,” said Morikawa. “It's like you're still there, but five shots is a lot, and you need a lot of special things to happen. Just didn't put myself in enough positions to do that.”

Morikawa attributed his lack of closing to a sub-par approach play season, by his standards. Perennially a top-10 iron player in the world, Morikawa ranked 55th in Strokes Gained: Approach.

“If I can dial it in and get back to who I was before and even better now, it'll be hopefully a fun 2025,” Morikawa said.

His conclusion to 2024 is nothing to sneeze at. Morikawa finished No. 2 in the FedExCup, a new career-best. He’s finished inside the top 10 in three of his six seasons on the PGA TOUR. He will now turn his attention to the Presidents Cup in two weeks and defending his ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP victory later this fall.

“Hopefully we can use this as a steppingstone,” Morikawa said.