SANDWICH, England – Collin Morikawa has a chance to become the first player to win two separate major championships on debut after a scintillating 6-under 64 in the second round of The 149th Open.
Morikawa surged to nine under 131 through 36 holes, a record for Opens at Royal St. George’s and one off the all-time Open record of 130. He was three shots clear of the pack after the morning wave with the likes of Louis Oosthuizen (-6) and Jordan Spieth (-5) yet to start.
The 2020 PGA Championship winner is playing his first Open Championship and looks to emulate Ben Curtis – the last player to win an Open on debut – which coincidentally happened at Royal St. George’s in 2003.
Willie Park Sr (1860), Tom Kidd (1873), Mungo Park (1874), Jock Hutchison (1921), Denny Shute (1933), Ben Hogan (1953), Tony Lema (1964) and Tom Watson (1975) are the only players pre Curtis to all win The Open on debut.
But no one has ever won two of golf’s four majors in their first attempt.
“We have four of them a year, and you’re trying to definitely win these four because they’re that big,” Morikawa said of the majors. “Sometimes you have those days where you’re very fortunate to have good numbers, and today was one of those days.”
Morikawa opened the round with a birdie and had added three more at the turn to set up his special round. Further birdies at 11, 12 and 14 had the California kid at seven under on the day and on track to equal the course record 63 or perhaps better Branden Grace’s all-time major championship low 62.
But a leaked drive on the 15th resulted in a missed green from the left rough and he was unable to get it up and down to save par. Morikawa then had a chance at 63 via an eight-foot attempt for birdie on the 18th only to see it slide by.
“I had no clue what any course record was. I don’t know any of those numbers. Now I do know.
But I was just trying to make a lot of birdies,” Morikawa said.
And besides. He was more proud of some of his par saves, including a great one on the 13th after a drive into a pot bunker.
