KAPALUA, Hawaii (AP) — Jon Rahm left Maui with a trophy he didn’t expect, all because of a collapse from Collin Morikawa, who no one expected.
Ram started the final round of the Sentry Tournament of Champions seven shots back. He birdied his first hole. He was six shots back at the turn on Morikawa, who had yet to break even all week at Kapalua.
“Kind of a crazy day, not gonna lie,” Ram said.
A wild hour included a seven-stroke swing in four holes as Rahm escaped with three straight birdies and an eagle and Morikawa, playing two groups behind him, made three straight bogeys on holes that had the rest of the field collectively playing at 44-under par .
Rahm finished with one last shot for a 10-under 63 and a two-shot victory over Morikawa (72), who went from a sure win to a footnote in PGA Tour history as the ninth player to lose a six-shot lead entering the final round .
“It’s going to hurt, but I have to get over it because we’re still in the very early parts of the season,” Morikawa said.
So began a brave new year on the PGA Tour of elevated tournaments that average $20 million in prize money in an effort to bring the best together more often and reward them amid the challenge of Saudi-funded LIV Golf.
Ram is on a roll, winning for the third time in his last five world starts.
“In my mind I feel like I’ve been the best player in the world since August,” he said.
For Morikawa, it was an epic destruction even by Maui standards.
He was still three shots ahead when he hit a bunker shot from 25 yards over the 14th green and made a great one. On the par-5 15th, his 5-wood leaked just enough to slide down the slope and leave him with a frightening chip, up the hill with strong grass in it. He jammed the chip and took bogey. And then on the 16th, his wedge wasn’t long enough and rolled off the false front of the green about 70 feet from the pin for a third-straight bogey.
“He still shot 63,” Morikawa said. “He definitely made the birdies when he had to. But I’ve also done trick-or-treating. When you get scarecrows at this time of the tournament, they are expensive. I definitely felt the weight of it.”
He tied the PGA Tour record for losing the largest 54-hole lead by six shots. Eight other players have done so, most recently Scotty Scheffler at the Tour Championship last year. This event has a tiered start based on FedEx Cup qualifying. For regular stroke play, the last case was Dustin Johnson at the 2017 HSBC Champions in Shanghai.
Morikawa looked in a state of shock as he walked the 17th fairway, leading by as many as seven shots during the final round, and suddenly found himself two shots behind and losing hope.
Ram was also surprised. He knew he was back in the game, and as he walked the 17th fairway and looked at the video board, he saw his picture on the screen with a “1” next to his position — not even the “T1” indicated a tie.
Rahm said he looked at caddy Adam Hayes and asked, “What’s going on?”
It was Morikawa’s second such collapse in just over a year. He closed 2021 at the Hero World Challenge and had a five-shot lead with a chance to reach world No. 1 with a win. He shot a 76 to finish fifth.
Masters champion Scheffler had a chance to return to No. 1 this week if he finished in a two-way tie for third or better. He had to settle for a 70 and finished in seventh place.
Ram finished at 27-under 265, and that was a small measure of redemption. Last year, he finished at 33-under par at Kapalua, a PGA Tour record that lasted just a few seconds. Cameron Smith finished at 34 under to win by one.
Rahm is now 60 under in his last two appearances at Kapalua. The win was his ninth on the PGA Tour and 17th worldwide and ensures he will return to Maui to start 2024.
He won $2.7 million of the $15 million purse at Kapalua, the first of the “elevated” events on the PGA Tour schedule. He also gets 25% of his bonus money from the Player Impact Program — he finished No. 5 in PIP for $6 million.
The Spaniard has now won in each of his seven full years on the PGA.
Tom Hoge had a 64 to tie for third with Max Homma (66). Hodge headed to the airport to go to Los Angeles to watch his school, TCU, play for the national championship against Georgia. Hoge will then return to Hawaii for the Sony Open.
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