AUGUSTA, GEORGIA | For an extended moment Sunday afternoon as the Masters was gathering toward what ultimately felt like an inevitable conclusion, Max Homa and Collin Morikawa found themselves in a four-way tie for the lead with Ludvig Åberg and eventual champion Scottie Scheffler.
For Homa, whose T-10 finish at the Open Championship last July was his only top-10 result in 17 major championships, this was a new frontier.
For Morikawa, who won the first major he played as a professional and picked up a second major title less than a year later, it was like rediscovering a familiar feeling that had gone missing.
A couple of hours after they had shared the lead as the Masters famously turned to the closing nine holes on Sunday, Americans Homa and Morikawa had finished tied for third with England’s Tommy Fleetwood, seven strokes behind Scheffler.
Both Americans were undone by double bogeys.
While encouraged by how he handled the pressure of being in contention through a weekend at Augusta, Homa will think about the tee shot at the 12th for a long time.
Morikawa made the first critical mistake, leaving a greenside bunker shot in the sand at the par-4 ninth, leading to a 6 that landed like a gut punch. Two holes later, trying to be too precise, Morikawa compounded the error with another double bogey at the dangerous par-4 11th when his second shot found the water.
Homa, meanwhile, was alone in second place when his tee shot at the capricious par-3 12th landed a couple of yards long, took a hard kick off a gentle slope behind the green and buried in a spread of decorative ivy, leading to a double that changed the tenor of the sunny, warm afternoon.
“I had nothing backfire, really. [No.] 12 is just hard,” said Homa, who hit a 9-iron tee shot.
“The wind isn’t where it feels, where it’s supposed to be. I hit it a foot to three feet left of where I’m looking – not trying to be perfect, just trying to hit it to the left-center of that green. I was very proud of that. I didn’t veer off of my game plan.”
“The honest answer is, it didn't feel fair. I hit a really good golf shot, and it didn’t feel fair. I’ve seen far worse just roll back down the hill,” Homa said. “The professional answer is, these things happen.”
For Morikawa, whose success has been built on a precision iron play that had lost its edge in recent months, he left Augusta thinking he had made progress but knowing he let a great opportunity slip from his grasp.
“This has been a weird year, but I saw a lot of good this week,” Morikawa said. “Today was the first day where I really just mentally kind of gave a couple away. Sometimes it happens. The few times I’ve been kind of near the lead in majors, I’ve performed pretty well. Today, I think it’s just a balance of everything between how the game feels and where the mental state is. It’s just kind of getting back in that groove. This week was a real big thing for me, and I think I’m going to use this a lot kind of in this next little stretch of golf, especially since majors, they all come one right after another.”
Two swings cost Morikawa four shots. Not making those mistakes may not have changed the outcome, but they changed the dynamic.
“Greed got the best of me,” Morikawa said. “Nine, can't miss it over there and can't leave it in the bunker. Eleven, just tried to hit too perfect of a shot. It's not like at that point I was trying to press. I knew where I stood.
“Yeah, it’s just, can’t do that. In the past I haven’t done it, but kind of where the game’s at. You kind of find your little stride.
“We put a lot of pieces of the puzzle together this week, but after watching Scottie this week, I know what to do if I really want to close this gap on what he’s doing and how impressive he’s playing.”
Ron Green Jr.