Morikawa started playoffs first, now 11th

Collin Morikawa said it sucks — but it’s reality.

Morikawa started the Fedex Cup playoffs first in the point standings. He dropped to sixth after the opening of The Northern Trust by missing the cut and to 11th after last week’s BMW Championship by finishing tied for 63rd. So, he starts the Tour Championship at 3-under par, seven strokes behind leader Patrick Cantlay.

“Yeah, I mean, am I OK with it? No, I don’t personally like being dropped all the way down to 11th, but like I said, that’s the way our playoffs work,” Morikawa said Wednesday from East Lake Golf Club.

Morikawa, who won twice this year including his second major in the British Open, proclaimed himself 100% healthy from a back injury that hampered him and his game 95% to where it was before the pulling a back muscle and developing some bad swing habits while compensating for the issue.

During the first round of the Olympics, Morikawa pulled a muscle in his lower back. Instead of letting it fully heal, he played in the World Golf Championships-fedex St. Jude Invitational in Memphis.

“Way better than it was two weeks ago,” Morikawa said of the state of his game. “I think starting the playoffs, I really didn’t know where it was going to be with the little back stuff and having not practiced. But I’ve kind of worked out a lot of the bad patterns that I’ve built in. There’s one thing that I need to figure out today, but for the most part all the bad patterns that I’ve worked in Memphis that I should have never played injured, really, have been pushed out. So that’s what’s good. So, we’re going out here just trying to play golf, how do I put the ball in the hole. I’m going to try and keep it simple.”

A drop in the standings

Thanks, Sungjae Im. Rory Mcilroy watched himself drop down the Fedex Cup standing as Im finished the BMW Championship last week. When he finished, Mcilroy was projected to finish with the group to start the Tour Championship at 4-under par. Im birdied No. 17, and Mcilroy was projected in the group at 3-under par. When Im birdied No. 18, Mcilroy ended up in the group at 2-under par.

“Even before the week started, he cost me two shots,” Mcilroy joked.

Mcilroy will start eight strokes off the pace. He has been here before. He entered the Tour Championship in 2012 and 2014 leading the points standings and didn’t win the Fedex Cup. He won it

in 2016 being five strokes back at the halfway point of the Tour Championship and in 2019 being five strokes back to start the tournament.

“The first year that it was played in this format I started five back, and I ended up winning the tournament by three,” Mcilroy said. “So, like, everyone gets here. The people that have played well have an advantage. It’s not an insurmountable advantage like it has been in previous years where guys have turned up to the Tour Championship not having to do anything to win the Fedex Cup and that’s certainly, you don’t want that to happen either. So I mean, there’s been a few iterations of it and I think this is definitely the best format so far. There’s clarity for the players. There’s clarity for the fans. It’s, again, it’s the playoffs, and I think everyone that’s in the top-30 deserves to be here and then because of that everyone in the top-30 deserves to feel like they have a chance to win it all.”

A different view this year

Dustin Johnson was the Fedex Cup points leader going into the Tour Championship last year. He took the two-stroke advantage to start the tournament and ran with it — all the way to a score of 21-under par and three strokes better than Justin Thomas and Xander Schauffele.

This year, Johnson enters the tournament in 15th place and at 3-under par and seven strokes behind Cantlay. He thinks he can make up the difference.

“It’s a great challenge, but obviously over one day would be a lot to ask, but over four days it’s not as big of an ask,” Johnson said. “I’m still going to have to play extremely well, but over four rounds it’s a lot easier to make up seven strokes than over one day.

“On a golf course like East Lake Golf Club, if you can get off to a good start, shoot a good first round or just get your — inch your way a little bit closer each day, still going to have to play four great rounds if I want a chance to win.”

Weather report

The remnants of Hurricane Ida won’t have an impact on the Tour Championship. The weather report for the competitive rounds Thursday through Sunday calls for sunny or partly sunny skies with high temperatures about 84 degrees and low temperatures around 63 degrees.

Collin Morikawa said the state of his game is “way better than it was two weeks ago.”