Morikawa leads charge of young rising brigade
Jeju (South Korea), Oct. 19: Collin Morikawa showed why he is one of the leading lights of a new generation of golf stars when he shot a stunning best-of-theday 65 on Saturday at the CJ Cup.
Morikawa, Im Sung-jae, Matthew Wolff, Viktor Hovland and Joaquin Niemann are all barely in their twenties but are keeping pace with some of the game’s biggest names in Korea this week.
“We feel like we belong and even though we’ve watched all these guys play golf, it finally feels good to play against them and get to know them,” the 22-year-old American Morikawa said after his impressive display.
He closed with a bogey six in a seven-under par third round liberally sprinkled with nine birdies that took him to nine-under for the tournament and a tie for seventh place.
“I think the reason why we turned pro at the
times we did is that we felt ready,” he added of the young brigade who are taking the US PGA Tour by storm week-in, week-out.
Morikawa was runnerup to 20-year-old US compatriot Wolff at the 3M Open at the beginning of July and later that month won his first PGA Tour event at Barracuda Championship.
“Obviously it all happened really quickly,” Wolff said, before struggling to a six-over 78 that left him in 76th place.
Chile’s Niemann is also just 20 and took his maiden PGA Tour win at the Greenbrier last month. He is tied 18th in the elite 78-player field at sevenunder par after a 71 on Saturday.
Koepka pulls out
Defending champion Brooks Koepka withdrew from the CJ Cup in South Korea before the third round on Saturday citing a knee injury.
“During the course of Friday’s round, I slipped on wet concrete aggravating a previous injury to my left knee,” said the world number one in a statement.