'Sadness' - Collin Morikawa After Losing Tournament Of Champions
The two-time Major champion made three consecutive bogeys on the back nine to lose out after Jon Rahm's closing 63
Collin Morikawa says he felt "sadness" after losing a six-stroke lead at the Sentry Tournament of Champions.
The former World No.2 was winless last year but looked certain to pick up his first victory since November 2021's DP World Tour Championship before losing out to Jon Rahm after the Spaniard's 10-under-par 63 final round at Kapalua.
"A little bit of both," Morikawa said on whether he lost the tournament or Jon Rahm won it. The American shot one-under-par around the low-scoring Kapalua on Sunday but three consecutive bogeys at 14, 15 and 16 handed the tournament to the charging Spaniard.
His back nine of 39, two-over-par, paled in comparison to Rahm's closing 31, six-under, which included three consecutive birdies at 12, 13 and 14 followed by an eagle at the 15th and then a birdie at the 18th.
"I mean one-under on this course is not a good score. It really isn't," Morikawa said.
"I was three-under through whatever, six holes. Three-putted 5 as well. He still shot 63. But I still, you know, I still had it within reach. If I don't make those bogeys and I make par, we're right there.
"So he definitely made the birdies when he needed to. But I also made bogeys. When you're getting bogeys at that time of the tournament they're costly. I definitely felt the weight of that."
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The two-time Major champion couldn't hide his disappointment following the round, which he finished off with a birdie on the par-5 18th to end the tournament as runner-up at 25-under-par and two back of Rahm.
"Sadness. I don't know. It sucks," he said. "You work so hard and you give yourself these opportunities and just bad timing on bad shots and kind of added up really quickly. 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."
The 26-year-old described it as the lowlight of his career. "I would say so. Can't really think of anything else. Yeah, it's hard to look at the positives, it really is."
And what next for Morikawa? He's going to enjoy Hawaii for a couple of days before starts at the Farmers Insurance Open, WM Phoenix Open and the Genesis Invitational.
"I'm going to take two days off and enjoy Hawaii a little bit more," he said. "It's not going to be as great, but it will still be good. But, yeah, my mind's already thinking about what we need to do. It's going to hurt, but I got to get over it because we're still in the very early parts of the season."
Elliott Heath is our News Editor and has been with Golf Monthly since early 2016 after graduating with a degree in Sports Journalism. He manages the Golf Monthly news team as well as our large Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. He covered the 2022 Masters from Augusta National as well as five Open Championships on-site including the 150th at St Andrews. His first Open was in 2017 at Royal Birkdale, when he walked inside the ropes with Jordan Spieth during the Texan's memorable Claret Jug triumph. He has played 35 of our Top 100 golf courses, with his favourites being both Sunningdales, Woodhall Spa, Western Gailes, Old Head and Turnberry. He has been obsessed with the sport since the age of 8 and currently plays off of a six handicap. His golfing highlights are making albatross on the 9th hole on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa, shooting an under-par round, playing in the Aramco Team Series on the Ladies European Tour and making his one and only hole-in-one at the age of 15 - a long time ago now!
Elliott is currently playing:
Driver: Titleist TSR4
3 wood: Titleist TSi2
Hybrids: Titleist 816 H1
Irons: Mizuno MP5 5-PW
Wedges: Cleveland RTX ZipCore 50, 54, 58
Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #5
Ball: Srixon Z Star XV
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