The American golfer played a flawless final round at Royal St. George’s, holding off all challengers to finish at 15 under, two strokes ahead of Jordan Spieth.
SANDWICH, England — The young American Collin Morikawa arrived at the Royal St. George’s Golf Club for his first British Open and played like a master of links golf, finishing at 15 under par to win by two strokes and hold off the past major champions Jordan Spieth, Jon Rahm and Louis Oosthuizen.
It was a familiar sight for those who watched Morikawa at his first P.G.A. Championship, last year in San Francisco, as he calmly stared down a closely packed leaderboard in the closing holes and emerged as a major champion.
“It’s the same thing I said after Collin won the P.G.A.: It seems like he’s been there 100 times, and he just hasn’t,” said J.J. Jakovac, Morikawa’s caddie. “It just goes to his mental strength and his maturity, and you add the freakish ball striking to an absolute stone-cold demeanor who is very comfortable in all the situations — you get somebody pretty special.”
Morikawa, a 24-year-old Californian, is the first men’s player to win two different major championships in his first appearance at them and the second player to win twice in his first eight majors.
The other was Bobby Jones in 1926. For reference, it took Tiger Woods 18 starts to win his first two majors.
“I’ve had belief in myself from Day 1 that I turned professional that I can do it,” said Morikawa, who graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2019. “When it comes to these tournaments I’ve never played, I do my work, do my homework Monday through Wednesday to know what I have to do.”
But while deep research has its benefits, it is difficult to model an outcome like Sunday’s: Morikawa in the final pairing of the British Open trailing the former champion Oosthuizen by two shots, and on the first tee with 32,000 fans gathered outside the ropes and ready to roar from the knolls and ridges that are part of the undulating landscape at Royal St. George’s.
But Morikawa took it all in and did not crack or even give the impression that he was close to cracking.
He shot a four-under-par 66 in the final round, making four birdies and not a single bogey. He took a share of the lead at the fourth hole at 11 under and took the outright lead for the first time in the tournament on the seventh hole. He never relinquished it despite an inspired charge from Spieth, 27, the American who won the 2017 British Open.
After a shaky start, Spieth made eagle on No. 7 to regain his momentum and pulled to within one shot of Morikawa’s lead when he sank a birdie putt on the 14th hole to go to 13 under.
But Morikawa, aware of Spieth’s surge, quickly gave himself more cushion by making a curling uphill birdie putt on the 14th hole that took him to 15 under.
Spieth could not manage to close the gap despite all the spring in his step and urgency in his words as he talked to his shots in midair.
Morikawa closed out his poised performance by making par on each of the final four holes to finish with a 15-under-par total of 265. Spieth was second at 13 under. Oosthuizen and Rahm, this year’s U.S. Open champion, tied for third at 11 under.
“Clearly, with the shots he’s hit and the putts he’s holed, he’s not afraid of high-pressure situations and winning a major championship,” Spieth said of Morikawa. “Is he 21? Is that it? How old is he?”
Told that Morikawa was 24, Spieth continued.
“At 24, obviously there’s a bright future ahead,” he said. “That’s pretty special.”
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