Tough to watch Weir on back nine

á Bits: Collin Morikawa has four wins in 39 PGA Tour events as a professional, including a major (the 2020 PGA Championship) and the weekend’s World Golf Championship in Bradenton, Fla. He joins Tiger Woods as the only golfers to win a major and a WGC before turning 25. Not that he’s ever going to come close to Woods’s career, but this kid is a whiz … Would love, love, love to see Morikawa versus WGC-Workday runnerup Viktor Hovland in a Ryder Cup singles match. Hovland isn’t on Europe’s team at this point but he’ll be at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, either on merit or as a captain’s pick … Disappointed Mike Weir did not win the Cologuard Classic in Tucson if only because it deprived of us of seeing him don the Conquistador Helmet, traditionally given to Tucson winners, and to see who wore it better, him or fellow Canadian Ian Leggatt, who captured that crown in 2002 on the PGA Tour … Great to see Annika Sorenstam play all four rounds in her one-off return to the LPGA Tour. The 50-year-old was last among those who made the cut, but it was obvious how much pride she took in battling. á Bites: The Concession Golf Club, host of last week’s WGC event, looked brutally hard and had some crazy green complexes, but a course like that, without thick, gnarly rough bordering fairways, is not only pleasing to the eye, it allows errant drives to run into real trouble instead of getting caught up in long grass that today’s players with today’s equipment are strong enough to conquer … Speaking of mighty men, Bryson DeChambeau blaming his equipment for not being able to keep up with his swing speed is peak Bryson DeChambeau … Did Patrick Reed show up to Sunday’s final round at Concession wondering why everyone was dressed in the same colours as him? … No folks, there isn’t going to be an RBC Canadian Open with just Canadian PGA Tour players and other pros from our home and native land. Canadians playing down south would still be subject to quarantine and they’re hoping to be at the U.S. Open the following week. Mackenzie Hughes is the only one with a spot in that field at this point. á Barbs: Those last nine holes of the PGA Tour Champions’ Cologuard Classic were tough to watch. Weir had a threestroke lead standing on the 10th tee and lost by two to Kevin Sutherland. Weir did not make a birdie on the inward nine Sunday after 12 on that side combined the first two rounds. It was cool and windy, yes, but Weir looked indecisive on occasion and tentative with the putter. In short, he looked like a guy trying to win a golf tournament for the first time in many years ... The good news is that in 12 senior circuit events Weir has proven he has the physical skills to prevail, something that hasn’t been the case for more than a decade. He is driving the ball extremely well again and his iron play is solid. What let him down Sunday was his game around the greens. When Weir gets back into grind mode — he spent most of the last month skiing — he will work out those kinks.