Right at home: Morikawa opens up 2-shot lead
KAPALUA — Collin Morikawa has always considered West Maui a little slice of home.
Through two rounds of the Sentry Tournament of Champions, he clearly feels right at home.
Morikawa started red-hot Friday, with four birdies in the first five holes, on his way to a 7-under-par 66 in the second round at the Kapalua Plantation Course for a 16-under 130 total, two strokes better than Scottie Scheffler and J.J. Spaun.
Morikawa hears stories from his father, who enjoyed his youthful days at the Morikawa Restaurant on Front Street in Lahaina. There is no doubt that Maui carries a little bit of the hometown feeling for Collin.
“It’s great. It definitely feels like home even though I never lived here,” Morikawa said. “My dad used to come all the time as a kid and grandparents are from here and great grandparents are from here and there’s a long lineage throughout the Hawaii islands for us. And I would say it’s nice to kind of feel that family, that Ohana spirit around and just have people rooting you on.
“It’s always nice. I feel that in L.A., you feel that out here. There’s not many places that I’ve lived, so it’s nice to have that kind of extra support.”
Morikawa is well aware of the heritage his name carries here, and the 25-year-old Californian feels it when he and his father visit the site where the family restaurant once stood down the road from Kapalua.
“It’s amazing. I mean, to think what Front Street means to the island of Maui and to the city of Lahaina,” Morikawa said. “Every time we walk by, my dad, I know he just kind of goes back to being a kid. You could tell — you know, I know exactly where it is still. Like you could tell he wishes it was still there. I wish it was still there. It would be pretty cool.”
Scheffler shot his second straight 66, and Spaun, who was tied with Morikawa and Jon Rahm for the first-round lead, fired a 68.
“Those holes are obviously a little bit easier, but birdies are never easy,” Scheffler, the second-ranked player in the world, said of his run of four straight birdies to finish. “It’s still golf. You still got to hit really good shots, and I was able to make some nice putts there at the end.”
Spaun was also pleased with his second round — he said the conditions were a bit tougher Friday when it was mostly sunny with a high of 80 and winds from the northeast at 10-15 mph with gust up to 20 mph.
“Did overall pretty good, though,” Spaun said. “Yeah, it was good.”
Jordan Spieth is alone in fourth at 13 under after a 66. Tom Kim, a 20-year-old from South Korea, is fifth at 12 under after a 69.
Spieth loves the Plantation Course and has won more than $2.5 million here — seventh all-time in the TOC — over five previous appearances, beginning in 2014.
“I think it’s — for what we play all year, outside the majors, top five easily,” Spieth said of his ranking of the Plantation on his favorite course list. “As far as in the world? I don’t know. Yeah, it’s up there. I really enjoy playing here. It’s a very fun course to play. I just love — you know, it’s probably my favorite resort course that we play because it can still be a challenge with the wind.
“And when it’s not, it’s fun to play. It’s scorable, but it’s fun. You still have to hit nice shots. You still have to make putts. To shoot 30 under, for me I’m not a big, like has to be 10 under to be a great golf course winning score. I think if it requires you to hit quality golf shots and there’s not too many freebies and stuff like that. I think this one does that. I think as a resort course it’s the best one in the world.”
Spieth fired 30-under 262 here in 2016 to win by eight strokes — that score is the fifth best to par in PGA Tour history, behind four other scores here.
“I don’t think it will get to — I don’t think — what am I at? I’m at 13, 17 under is hard in two days,” Spieth said of the magical 30-under number. “But Collin’s about to do it the first two days. You just have to have a lot go right to be 17 under on a muni in two rounds, you know what I mean? I think — hopefully the wind stays up the next couple days and it just requires 6 under a couple more times. So I think, I would imagine some mid to high 20s though.”
Morikawa is the only player in the field that is bogey-free through 36 holes — he is 27 under over his last 54 holes here, including a blazing 62 to finish last season’s event.
His 130 36-hole total is the best of his career and is tied for third-best ever here, behind 129 fired by David Duval in 1999
and Cameron Smith last year.
“Just similar to yesterday, pretty solid, made some good putts. Obviously it played a lot harder with kind of the wind, and just the fairways rolling pretty fast, you end up in a lot of spots where you’re just going to end up in the rough. 1, 13, 10, even,” Morikawa said. “It’s just going to happen. You just got to play shots and kind of hit ’em to good spots and thankfully we were able to take advantage of enough holes today to kind of keep those birdies going.”
Luke List is in a tie for eighth at 10 under after his 65 was the best round Friday.
“I was a little disappointed with yesterday because I feel like I played a little better. I just didn’t score, especially you’ve got 14, 15, and 18 you kind of got to make some birdies on, and I played those 1-over yesterday, and I was a little — not pleased with that,” List said. “Got off to a good start today in birdieing 2 and just kind of played consistent on the front, and then was just kind of trying to keep the pedal down.”
List said that is an attitude that is necessary when the scoring condition are so good.
“These guys are so good out here, you can’t just let up and coast on this golf course,” List said. “Even though it was a little, I thought a little tougher today with the wind, I was able to put myself in good positions having a lot of opportunities.”
List is one of 12 first-timers here, but he is having a great time.
“Oh, yeah,” List said when asked if he likes the venue. “Yeah. It’s my first time here, but everybody kind of told me that I would like it and they were right.”
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