At the age of 26, Collin Morikawa will be competing for the American team in the Ryder Cup for the second time. He made his debut in 2021 and made the team again in 2023. His season performance was mixed, and Morikawa did not earn an automatic spot through the world rankings. Nevertheless, he has convinced captain Zach Johnson and takes a place of the six “Captain’s Picks”.
Collin Morikawa at the 2023 Ryder Cup
Collin Morikawa has had a mixed season. After the young golfer experienced a veritable whirlwind start in recent years, sprinting to third place in the world rankings within a very short time, things went up and down for him on the PGA Tour in the 2022/23 season. At the time of his nomination, he was ranked 19th in the world rankings. At the start of last season, around the turn of the year, Morikawa was still collecting some very good finishes and just missed out on victory at the Sentra Tournament of Champions. This was followed by an alternation of solid finishes and missed cuts. Most recently, he delivered very good performances in the playoff tournaments. While he missed the cut at the Open Championship, he placed T26 or better at the three remaining majors.
At the end of the season, his performance was enough to convince captain Zach Johnson of his merits. Collin Morikawa is still considered one of the best iron players on the tour and after this season is ranked second in the “Strokes gained” statistics. Not least his performance at the last Ryder Cup speaks for the young up-and-coming talent.
Can’t wait for the Rome remix on these swing sounds @collin_morikawa ? pic.twitter.com/21XTLQubFg
— Ryder Cup USA (@RyderCupUSA) September 1, 2023
Collin Morikawa’s record at the Ryder Cup
Last year was Collin Morikawa’s first appearance in the continental competition between the USA and Europe. The then 24-year-old played four matches and posted a record of 3-0-1. Morikawa played his three team appearances together with Dustin Johnson. The duo remained invincible, earning three points for Team USA.
Collin Morikawa also put up a good fight in the singles match on Sunday. He did not manage a win against European Ryder Cup rookie Viktor Hovland, but the two shared the point. At the end of the day, the young Morikawa won the tournament together with the American team and will be part of the group again this year.
Collin Morikawa’s successes
In 1997 Collin Morikawa was born in Los Angeles. In his amateur days, Morikawa won numerous golf tournaments and led the world amateur rankings for three weeks in May 2018. His winning streak continued after turning professional in 2019. He survived the cut in 22 tournaments in a row. Only Tiger Woods managed more as a rookie, namely 25. This was followed by his first PGA Tour victory and, in only his second season as a professional, his first major win at the 2020 PGA Championship. In total, the 26-year-old now has two major victories, five PGA Tour wins and four DP World Tour victories.
WITB: Collin Morikawa’s equipment at the 2023 Ryder Cup
Collin Morikawa is all about TaylorMade. His equipment is made up of classics and current models from the brand. From the tee, he relies on the popular SIM driver, and he also uses the classic 3-wood. The 5-wood in the American’s bag is the brand’s latest Stealth 2 series. For the irons, Morikawa uses the range of high-performance Players irons. The 4-iron comes from the P770 series, irons 5 and 6 he gets from the new P7MC irons and from the 7-iron to the pitching wedge he relies on the P7CM model. In this way, Morikawa has put together an ideal combination of distance irons and spin enhancement in the short game. TaylorMade also provides the wedges for the top player. With the brand-new Milled Grind 4 models in various sole grinds, Morikawa can use versatile pitches and chips around the greens in Rome. He chooses the putter from the TP Collection in the “Soto” blade design and reduces the weights used from 10 grams each to 7.5 grams. As a playing ball, he chooses the TP5 5-piece ball from TaylorMade.