Morikawa mapping out his own course
Rising star has earned four PGA Tour wins in first 39 starts as a pro
red shirt for Collin Morikawa to wear on Sunday at the Workday Championship never arrived in time.
The comparisons with Tiger Woods keep coming up in other ways.
When Morikawa turned pro in 2019 after graduating from Cal, he began his PGA Tour career by making the cut in 22 consecutive events. That was the longest such streak since Woods began his career making 25 in a row.
Morikawa became a youthful footnote in history at Torrey Pines last year when he was in the same group with Woods. It was the first time Woods had played alongside someone who was born after he turned pro.
Most notable about his threeshot victory at The Concession against another stacked field was the 24-year-old Morikawa joined Woods as the only players to win a major and a World Golf Championship before turning 25.
Each year, the pool of young talent keeps getting deeper.
Morikawa didn’t wade into the pool. It was a cannonball. In his fourth event, he lost out to an eagle on the final hole in Minnesota to Matt Wolff. Two events later, he won the Barracuda Championship with a cool precision in the final holes that quickly is becoming his trademark.
He won at Muirfield Village last summer by making a 25foot birdie putt in a playoff right after Justin Thomas had holed a putt from twice that long. He won the PGA Championship at Harding Park by changing his plan as the situation warranted, hitting driver on the reachable par-4 16th to seven feet for eagle.
That’s four PGA Tour victories in his first 39 starts as a pro. The only better start since 1990 was Woods, who had seven victories in the same span.
No one should suggest Morikawa is on the same trajectory as Woods. Morikawa doesn’t have nearly the same skill set, starting with power.
Even so, he has done enough — and looks good doing it — to warrant a prominent spot in any conversation about golf’s leading stars.
“I’ve said for a year or plus now, he’s the one that everyone’s got to look out for,” Billy Horschel said after his runnerup finish to Morikawa. “Yeah, he doesn’t hit it 320-plus. I can’t say it’s overrated — it’s helpful out here — but if you can’t hit straight and put it in the fairway, then it doesn’t give you any advantage.”
Morikawa hits it straight. He didn’t miss a fairway in the final round after the opening hole, and that made it tough for anyone to catch him on the back nine.
He didn’t have a red shirt, like a dozen other players Sunday, to show support for Woods as he recovers from serious leg injuries suffered in his Los Angeles-area car crash. Morikawa honoured his golfing idol by playing like he would in that situation.
The Blue Jays held their biggest off-season acquisition out of the first couple of Grapefruit League games, allowing George Springer some time to acclimate himself to his new surroundings, get used to the other coast of Florida, all the blue instead of orange and all of that stuff. But they unwrapped their big prize and got him in the lineup Tuesday against the Philadelphia Phillies in their second home game of spring.
Springer was the designated hitter in his first sortie in his new colours, and he was placed in his familiar leadoff spot in the lineup. He wasted no time making the decision pay off, singling up the middle on the second pitch he saw, though he wound up stranded at second.
It’s a fascinating question, where to best utilize Springer in what looks to be an incredibly potent Jays batting order, but it feels as though that decision might already have been made.
“Just to see him at the top of the lineup … it’s a good feeling,” Jays manager Charlie Montoyo raved after his team’s 4-2 win in Dunedin. “You feel it in the dugout, you know, Springer leading off the inning. I know this is just a spring training game, but it felt good to see him leading off.”
Montoyo was smiling right through his mask, and he couldn’t contain his laughter when asked if his gushing over his new slugger at the top of the lineup might be a clue as to where Springer was going to be once the season starts.
“That could be a hint,” Montoyo said as he chuckled. “He’s done that the whole time with Houston, so he’s really comfortable in that spot. He’s such a good hitter. I like him when he leads off, like he did today. I like that, but we’ll see.”
Springer hasn’t hit anywhere but the top spot in the lineup since May 24, 2016, almost five years ago. He has hit 39 leadoff home runs, and his OPS in the first at-bat of a game is a spectacular .944.
The question is, does any of that matter? Would those numbers have been drastically different — or different at all — if he had been the second hitter of the game and not the first? Which leads to another question: Is that the best place for him to hit in the Jays lineup?
The 39 leadoff homers are huge, of course. There’s nothing like instant offence, getting things going right away and putting your team on top. But, of course, there can be more offence when there’s someone on base ahead of you.
Josh Donaldson won the American League MVP award with the Jays’ 2015 juggernaut, hitting mostly second in the order, claiming that spot for good on Victoria Day. He hit behind Jose Reyes, Devon Travis, Troy Tulowitzki and Ben Revere at various points in the season.
Donaldson had a monster year overall, but he was a bigtime masher in the first inning, batting .326/.397/.674. He belted 13 first-inning homers and drove in 19 hitting behind that quartet of leadoff men, none of whom got on base as well as Cavan Biggio does.
Those extra six runs batted in might not sound like much, but they’re runs that aren’t available if Donaldson hits those 13 homers out of the leadoff spot.
The Jays have a very unique weapon in Biggio, and I believe the best place to use him, and to maximize Springer’s effectiveness, is to have him bat leadoff, with Springer right behind him.
Will that mean there’s a runner on base in the first inning every time Springer comes to the plate? Of course not. But given Biggio’s ability to reach base, it should mean that there’s a runner on for Springer in the first inning 35 to 40 per cent of the time, which is 35 to 40 per cent more often than if Springer is leading off.
Biggio might have the best eye of any hitter in the game. The story is told that when he was playing in Double-A New Hampshire, he had an issue with the way the TrackMan data system was measuring the strike zone. The team brought someone in to check the calibration, and Biggio was right, it was off. By a quarter of an inch.
That’s someone you want coming to the plate ahead of the big sluggers, getting on base ahead of them.
Montoyo believes that no matter where Biggio hits in the batting order, he helps.
“If you put Biggio down in the lineup, that stretches out the lineup even more, which is good for the team,” the skipper said. “Wherever you put him, he’s going to get on base. (Whether) he’s leading off, or hitting second, or fifth or sixth, he’s going to get on base and that can only be good for the team.”
Biggio getting on base is a good thing in a vacuum, for sure. But getting on base for the bottom of the lineup isn’t nearly as helpful as getting on base for the mashers at the top, who are likely to drive him in far more often. You don’t really want someone setting the table for your 8- and 9-hole hitters.
Biggio could bat ninth, setting the table for Springer, Bichette, Guerrero and company that way, but why would you want the hitter who gets on base the most on your team getting the fewest plate appearances?
Springer has been an outstanding leadoff man for the last five years, a great fit for the team he was on in Houston, but he could do the most damage for his new team one spot lower in the lineup, with the son of an Astros Hall of Famer hitting in front of him.