Morikawa snaps long drought in dramatic way at Pebble Beach
PEBBLE BEACH—Collin Morikawa went 45 starts over more than two years to finally win again on the PGA Tour and he faced a wait that felt just as long on the final hole on Sunday in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He kept his poise, hit a 4-iron to the collar of the green and made birdie for a one-shot victory.
In a wild final round of wind and lead changes, Morikawa had the right response for Scottie Scheffler’s bold charge by making two straight birdies down the stretch and then making the one that mattered the most—after a 20-minute wait—for a five-under-par 67.
He won by one shot over Sepp Straka and Min Woo Lee for his first PGA Tour title since the Zozo Championship in Japan in October 2023.
The timing couldn’t have been better. Morikawa began telling friends this week he and his wife are expecting their first child and winning was “the best way to announce it to the world.”
Scheffler began the final day eight shots behind and was seven-under through seven holes before the wind began whipping. He had three eagles in his round of 63, the last one a 6-iron to 30 inches on the final hole that allowed him to tie Morikawa for the lead.
He didn’t think it would be enough, and it wasn’t.
Moments later, Morikawa holed a 30-foot birdie putt on the 15th to take the lead. He followed with a 6-iron into eight feet for another birdie. But a bogey on the par-3 17th—his tee shot was dangerously close to the ocean left of the green—and Lee finishing birdie-birdie for a 65, created another tie.
For all the drama, it was particularly tense on the par-5 18th.
In the group ahead, Jacob Bridgeman needed an eagle to have any chance of a playoff and he sent his second shot over the bunker and down to the beach. He finally decided to play with the pebbles and they bounced off the rocks and into the ocean. Then, he moved back to where his ball last crossed the hazard. All the while, Morikawa waited.
It was 20 minutes from hitting his tee shot to hitting his 4-iron, a wait made longer considering what was at stake and the biting cold of the Pacific wind.
