Collin Morikawa delivers with an impressive win in a playoff in Ohio

One could make the argument that 23-year-old Collin Morikawa of Los Angeles, California is one of golf’s rising stars before our very eyes. On Sunday, Morikawa won his second career PGA Tour event when he defeated 2017 PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas of Louisville, Kentucky, in a three-hole playoff, at the inaugural Workday Charity Open in Dublin, Ohio.

Morikawa and Thomas each posted four-round scores of -19. In the playoff, Morikawa, and Thomas each had birdies on the first playoff hole, and then pars on the second playoff hole. Then on the third playoff hole, Morikawa won with a par, after Thomas struggled with his tee shot, as the golf ball went into the rough near a tree. Thomas was never able to recover.

The playoff also had some fascinating drama. Both players delivered with magnificent birdie putts on the first playoff hole. Thomas’s birdie putt on the 18th hole was 50 feet and six inches. Then moments later, Morikawa sunk his birdie attempt of 24 feet and three inches.

Morikawa’s first career PGA Tour victory was a win at the 2019 Barracuda Championship in Truckee, California. Unlike all of the other PGA Tour events, the Barracuda Championship uses the Modified Stableford scoring system, where players earn points for birdies, eagles, and albatrosses. Then in June of 2020, Morikawa reached a playoff at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas, but lost to Daniel Berger of Jupiter, Florida.

With the win, Morikawa now finds himself in 13th in the World Golf Rankings. Among the players he passed with the win in Ohio included major winners Tiger Woods, Justin Rose, Gary Woodland, Louis Oosthuizen, and Shane Lowry. As the World Golf Championship and PGA Championship are coming up fast on the PGA schedule, Morikawa will definitely be a player to keep an eye on.