I'm glad Collin Morikawa was able to say what he was thinking.
Morikawa finished at 32 under, three strokes behind Hideki Matsuyama. pretty curt reaction When asked about the performance of a play partner.
“I hate to say this, but damn, 35 under is low,” Morikawa said in a post-round interview aired on Golf Channel after the tournament.
“[Matsuyama] Just never give up. Then when you reach the third hole, a man will drill a hole in it. We knew we had to be on top of everything, but we messed up a bit with the front nine. I played well on the back nine, but to win on a course like this, in these conditions, you should have scored a 72, and I scored a 65. ”
Matsuyama won at the Sentry in Kapalua, setting a PGA Tour scoring record with a score of 35 under. He went for an 8-foot birdie on the 18th green to make history, but the 2021 Masters champion ran it out and etched his name into the record books.
“I felt like that last putt would set the record if I made it,” Matsuyama said.
“I'm so glad you came in.”
Morikawa sensed a few holes ago that Matsuyama was reaching something special.
Standing on the tee at the par-4 16th hole, Matsuyama held a two-stroke lead over Morikawa with three holes remaining. However, Morikawa hit his tee shot into the bunker and Matsuyama hit the fairway.
Matsuyama then put the nail in the coffin, jamming his wedge within tap-in range, but Morikawa could only approach from 23 feet above the sand.
“After he hit the wedge shot on the 16th. So we were down two with three to go,” Morikawa added.
“If he parred that, you know, two down, two more, which is very likely. Then it would be three down, and it hurt a lot.”
To add salt to the wound, Morikawa's 32-under score ranks in the top five lowest 72-hole scores in PGA Tour history. Still, he didn't win.
“I came into this tournament prepared to play golf,” Morikawa said.
“I'm not ready to play all the way to Augusta and prepare for the Masters, but I'm ready to play. So I'm going to come in two weeks from now and get ready to play. I can't wait to see the results. I'm glad I did, but I still want to finish at the top.”
If Morikawa continues to play like this, victory will come. But sometimes the better ones win. In this case, it took a record-breaking performance to defeat him.
No wonder why he dropped the F-bomb upon defeat. he couldn't believe it.
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation's Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.
