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In Collin Morikawa we have a newly minted major championship winner who, at 23, possesses a rare combination of skills. He is poised enough to unleash the laser drive on No. 16 that he used to lock down a PGA Championship that was seemingly so wide open. And he is unflappable enough to tumble the top off of the Wanamaker Trophy at the post-tourney presentation and yet still retain his winning smile.
You knew Sunday in San Francisco was shaping up to be a lot of fun to watch. Jim Nantz mentioned on the CBS-TV broadcast that golf's first major of 2020 was the most prestigious event in sports since athletes have returned to competition. Well, the 102nd PGA gave us a show that was equal to the moment.
As Ron Green Jr. writes, Morikawa's victory against a high-powered and ever-evolving top of the leaderboard – making him the ninth to win his PGA Championship debut – came in a performance that feels like the start of something, well, major.
Also worth noting: Spectator-free fairways and greens surely provided a stark difference from the usual atmosphere of golf's biggest stages, but TPC Harding Park still fit right in as a major championship host site.
Meanwhile, on the European Tour, Andy Sullivan ran away from the field at the English Championship, winning by seven strokes at Hanbury Manor for his fourth title on the circuit and first since 2015.
The UK also is where the women's game now will shift its focus. As Lewine Mair reports, the Ladies Scottish Open and the AIG Women's Open (at Royal Troon) take things up a notch and drama is sure to ensue.
With her second victory in Ohio in two weeks, Danielle Kang is the hottest player of the moment on the LPGA Tour. Kang rallied to win Sunday's Marathon Classic, also benefitting from a 72nd-hole double bogey by Lydia Ko.
Not to be outdone by the major doings on the West Coast, the USGA delivered some big-tournament excitement of its own when Rose Zhang outdueled Gabi Ruffels to win the U.S. Women's Amateur.
Steve Eubanks offers that although Ruffels was denied a repeat of her 2019 U.S. Women's Am victory, she is a special player – one you watch and immediately recognize that the world turns differently for her.
And in the week's installment of the Divot, Jim Nugent takes a read on numbers suggesting that as we've emerged from shutdown, golf – as a game and as an industry – is pointed in the right direction.
Sam Dolson
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