Jon Rahm shot 10-under-par 63 on Sunday, overcame a nine-shot deficit in the final round, won the Sentry Tournament of Champions in shocking fashion and yet, at least in the moment, it felt so much about Collin Morikawa.
Even by Kapalua’s tumultuous nature, the reversal of fortune for Rahm and Morikawa was jarring.
For 67 holes, Morikawa was nearly flawless. No bogeys. A lead as large as nine strokes over Rahm on Sunday. A sense of inevitability about the outcome.
It wasn’t a question of whether Morikawa would win. It was by how many strokes.
This wasn’t the 2021 Hero World Challenge in which Morikawa took a five-stroke lead into the final round and failed to win. At least it didn’t seem that way.
Then the world turned upside down.
“Hero is different. Hero started off bad, never found it, never felt good, just bad. Today it felt fine. Just made three poor swings, really, at the wrong times. It's never a good time to put a poor swing on it, but sometimes it works out and these never worked out,” Morikawa said Sunday after he bogeyed Nos. 14-16 en route to a 1-under 72 and 25-under 267 total, two behind Rahm.
“It sucks. You work so hard and you give yourself these opportunities and just bad timing on bad shots and (it) kind of added up really quickly.”
For all the brilliance built into his game – Morikawa is the model of tour efficiency with his irons – his short game and putting have been less reliable. He has not ranked inside the top 120 in strokes gained putting on the tour and, while it was a small sample size, he entered last week ranked 222nd on tour in strokes gained on the greens.
It’s why Morikawa began working with putting coach Stephen Sweeney and short-game coach Parker McLachlin. Through three rounds, Morikawa led the field in strokes gained putting by more than six strokes.
Then the hole began to shrink, his short game became tentative and the results were crippling.
“Don't know what I'm going to learn from this week, but it just didn't seem like it was that far off. It really wasn't. Yeah, it sucks,” said Morikawa, 25, a five-time winner on tour.
There was an element of redemption for Rahm, who was 33-under par at the Plantation Course last year, only to lose by one stroke to Cam Smith. This time, Rahm ran down a leader who seemingly couldn’t be caught, making 11 birdies over his last 17 holes.
Rahm’s performance didn’t come as a total shock. He won twice at the end of last year on the European Tour and has the look of a man intent on returning to No. 1 in the world.
Still, Morikawa became only the ninth player to fail to win a PGA Tour event after taking a six-stroke lead into the final round.
“If you had told me at the beginning that I was going to do what I did (bogey the first hole to fall nine back) and have a three-shot lead after finishing, I’m not sure I would have believed you,” Rahm said.
Ron Green Jr.