Cool Collin has eye of the Tiger
COLLIN MORIKAWA has been told he showed the best big-time temperament since Tiger Woods to claim the Open title.
Former Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger insisted the new world No.3 won the “old-fashioned” way to prove muscle-bound Bryson Dechambeau has not ripped up the rules of the game.
Morikawa famously hit his driver to seven feet on the 16th at Harding Park last summer to claim his first Major title at the US PGA.
But this victory for the brilliant iron player was down to his nerveless putting as he led the field on the greens – and held off the late surge of Jordan Spieth.
“This is some of the best clutch putting we have ever seen,” said 1993 US PGA winner Azinger. “When you put the pressure on that guy, you’re asking for trouble. He handles it as well as anyone I’ve seen since Tiger Woods.”
Morikawa was born in February 1997 – two months before Woods won his first Masters.
But the new Open champion played like a veteran as he carded four rounds in the 60s on his
Open debut. “How old is he?” marvelled Spieth. “I don’t even know. 24? That’s pretty special. He’s got the head for the big stage”
Morikawa’s caddie JJ Jakovic added: “He’s a special kid. I’m lucky to have him. He seems like he’s been there 100 times.
“It just goes to his mental strength and his maturity. You add the freakish ball striking to his absolute cold-stone demeanour, you get someone who is very special.
“He seems to perform better in big spots.”
Yet only nine months ago, Dechambeau’s win at the US Open had seemed to be propelling golf into a different orbit.
His “bomb-and-gouge” routine saw him smash it long and then muscle the ball onto the green.
“I think I’m definitely changing the way people think about the game,” said the world No.6.
But his blueprint has not worked at Augusta or The Open.
Azinger added: “Collin did it the old-fashioned way – fairways and greens. In the bomb-and-gouge era, that’s not what Collin Morikawa is about. He didn’t do it that way.”