– Collin Morikawa has hit 52 greens in regulation over the three rounds played so far at The Sentry. In other words, he’s only missed two. Yes, the Plantation course is a generous course, with wide fairways and giant greens that also kindly accept balls from average or not-so-precise shots. Agreed, but the Californian’s numbers are overwhelming in this regard.
Hideki Matsuyama (-27), the tournament leader with a one-shot advantage over Morikawa (-26), said yesterday that Collin had played very well and he had just tried to follow him as best he could… The Japanese player, obviously, also played brilliantly, but he wasn’t just talking for the sake of it. Both indeed signed cards of 62 strokes, flirting with the course record (61), but it was Morikawa who led the charge for much of the round. He was regularly leaving them closer, you see.
– Look. Matsuyama has even enjoyed the luck of the champion. On the 17th hole, he hit a poor drive, and his ball still remained playable after bouncing twice on the path, when it could have really ended up in serious trouble, with a lost ball. If you were Morikawa today, you’d be a bit wary.
– Moreover, the precedents don’t help the Californian much either. In 2021, he started Sunday just one shot off the lead and ended up with a par round, finishing far behind. And in 2023, he started the final round as the leader with a six-shot advantage and ended up losing to Rahm after delivering a poor 72…
The saying couldn’t be clearer. Third time’s the charm. And we should believe it. At some point, we have to start believing in Morikawa again without reservations.
– No one has a single objection to this start of the year in Hawaii, in Kapalua. But it’s evident that if the wind doesn’t blow, the tournament loses its substance. “To be honest, when you shoot eight under on other courses, you say, oh, I played well today, but that didn’t happen to me here today. I’d say I made very few mistakes and played very steady golf.” These are the words of Thomas Detry after indeed signing a card of 65 strokes, eight under on this par 73. And it’s not a statement that initially reflects well on the course. Steady golf shouldn’t be enough to sign such impressive cards. But it’s all for the sake of ‘strolling’ through those breathtaking landscapes at the start of each year.
– Morikawa makes another reference to the same issue. “It’s not the kind of scoring and golf you’d like to have every week. Because it can also be just as stressful needing to make so many birdies as it is during those other more demanding weeks where you need to make pars to stay on top.” Hawaii, Maui, Kapalua, and the Plantation course are already icons of the PGA Tour, but surely they could give the matter some thought…
Or maybe it’s not necessary: we can be quite picky about these matters sometimes. The world is wide.
– Let’s go back to the beginning. The ball Morikawa left furthest away in the third round was one that was 29 feet from the hole… But it was for eagle, on the 9th hole. And the longest birdie putt he holed was three metres, although he certainly also sank another seven-and-a-half-metre putt for eagle on the 5th. His round yesterday, and there’s not a hint of exaggeration in the analysis, could have easily reached that elusive 60-stroke mark, thirteen under, which all the top players passing through Kapalua each year are striving for.
– There was a lot of interest in testing the performance of Viktor Hovland (-12), Xander Schauffele (-11), and Justin Thomas (-9), each for different reasons. To check, for example, the state of the Norwegian after more than four months of competitive inactivity. Or to confirm if the player from Kentucky is truly back at the forefront and, likewise, if the Californian wasn’t willing to give up an inch of ground. Well, none of them would even come close to competing for the final victory by signing that coveted 60-stroke round in the final round, although somehow we still hope one of them can deliver the best card today. Shall we bet on Schauffele? Okay, let’s do it.
– Today, the wind is expected to blow a bit more, it seems, without reaching truly intimidating speeds. In any case, it’s sure to be more challenging for anyone to get close to such scores. Nevertheless, with the way Hideki and Collin are playing, Cameron Smith’s record-winning score, that -34 from 2022, isn’t secure. So, there you have it: the world is wide.
