Crane penalized 8 strokes for stickers on clubs

DUBLIN, Ohio – Collin Morikawa knew what he had to do. He had just seen a prayer of a 50-foot birdie putt drop into the cup. And like those two dozen people standing by the 18th green at Muirfield Village, including Rickie Fowler, who was filming the playoff on his smart phone, he had heard Justin Thomas’ guttural yell in celebration. RELATED: Final leaderboard | What’s in Morikawa’s bag? If Morikawa was going to have any chance of winning the inaugural Workday Charity Open, he had to convert his own birdie putt from 24 feet on that first playoff hole. There was no other option. So, he gathered himself and huddled with his caddie, J.J. Jakovac. “We agreed on a line, hit it perfect exactly how we wanted, and really helped that J.T. had that putt about halfway in between during regulation,” Morikawa recalled. “So, I kind of knew what it did at the end. So as long as I got my line started on there, we had a good shot at making it.” And he did. That clutch putt didn’t seal Morikawa’s victory – he would two-putt from 10 feet on the third extra hole to make that happen – but it was the signature moment in a roller-coaster afternoon of lead changes and emotion that Thomas would later call simply a “bizarre” day. “It would have been a fun day to have some fans just in terms of the ups and downs and the shot making,” acknowledged the disappointed runner-up, who lost a two-shot lead on the front nine, then built it back to three on the back with five birdies and an eagle in an eight-hole stretch. Thomas unraveled with bogeys on the 16th and 18th holes, though, and coupled with Morikawa’s 8-foot birdie putt on No. 17, the stage was set for the frantic and frenetic playoff. As Morikawa later said, it was a “long, long 21 holes.” Later, though, after fulfilling all his media obligations, the winner could relax. He posted a photo of himself holding the crystal trophy on Twitter. Morikawa was sipping one of Muirfield Village’s signature chocolate milkshakes, too. “Well done, it’s not our last battle,” responded a respectful Thomas, who had spoken Saturday about how he expected to have Morikawa as a teammate on Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup teams in the not-too-distant future. The win was the second of Morikawa’s career, which not coincidentally gives him more victories than he has missed cuts and lifted him to sixth in the FedExCup. The steady 23-year-old, who closed with a 66, had a streak of 22 straight weekends played, second only to the great Tiger Woods, that ended at the Travelers Championship two weeks ago. Not to mention, Morikawa nearly won the Charles Schwab Challenge, the first PGA TOUR event played after the COVID-19 hiatus, five weeks ago. He was involved in a playoff there, too, but missed a 4-footer on the first extra hole to lose to Daniel Berger. Morikawa called Sunday’s win, which came on one of the TOUR’s most respected courses in Muirfield Village, “amazing.” And he’ll get a chance to make it an unusual two-in-a-row at Jack Nicklaus’ place this week at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide. Morikawa made it clear on Sunday he wants to be known for more than consistency – not only by his words but by his actions. “This is a huge kind of stepping-stone,” he said. “We got No. 1 out of the way, we got No. 2, let the gates just open and let’s just keep going because obviously it was a tough loss at Colonial a month ago, but I learned a lot. I learned a lot from last week or a week and a half ago at Travelers after my missed cut. “This is just more positives, more learning for me, and I’ve got to go back to, okay, what did I do great, what did I do wrong this week, how can I get better, move on to next week and make a lot of birdies.” This time last year, Morikawa had his degree in business administration from the University of California-Berkeley in hand, but his post-graduate work was just beginning on the PGA TOUR. He earned his PGA TOUR card the hard way, gaining status as a special temporary member before winning his sixth start the Barracuda Championship, played opposite the World Golf Championships-FedEx Championship, to lock up job security for the next two years. Ironically, one of those helping him along the way was Thomas, who invited Morikawa to dinner the week he made his pro debut at the RBC Canadian Open. “He’s someone that has kind of helped me just get comfortable,” Morikawa said. “Props to him. He’s an awesome player, awesome dude, as well. “I wouldn’t say he’s like been there every practice round for me but making things easier and just telling me when we had that dinner just over a year ago, just telling me if you’re good enough, you’re going to get out here at some point. Everyone’s path is different. You don’t know how quick or how slow it’s going to get there, but if you’re good enough you’re going to get here.” Not only has Morikawa, who won a Korn Ferry Tour event as a freshman in college, gotten to the game’s highest level, he’s solidified his spot there. He’s nothing if not a fast learner, and more days like Sunday are only going to help. “It’s not a surprise,” he said honestly. “It’s just a lot of belief in myself that I could do this, and like I said, I go back to being comfortable. Comfortable, I think is the best word for a lot of these guys out here because they’ve been out here for many years. “They know the courses, they know where to hit it, and for me it’s getting as comfortable as I can as quickly as I can. I felt a lot more comfortable in this first hole playoff than I did in that last playoff at Colonial, but I still wouldn’t say I’m at where I felt perfectly fine. “By the second playoff hole today I felt very comfortable, and I knew let’s just play some golf.” And that’s what Morikawa does best.

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How it works: Each week, our experts from PGATOUR.COM will make their selections in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO. Each lineup consists of four starters and two bench players that can be rotated after each round. Adding to the challenge is that every golfer can be used only three time per each of four Segments. The first fantasy golf game to utilize live ShotLink data, PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO allows you to see scores update live during competition. Aside from the experts below, Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton breaks down the field at this year’s FedEx St. Jude Classic in his edition of the Power Rankings. THINK YOU’RE BETTER THAN OUR EXPERTS? The PGA TOUR Experts league is once again open to the public. You can play our free fantasy game and see how you measure up against our experts below. Joining the league is simple. Just click here to sign up or log in. Once you create your team, click the “Leagues” tab and search for “PGA TOUR Experts.” After that? Pick your players and start talking smack. SEASON SEGMENT

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Matt Jones starts the week with a record-tying 61, hovers around par for two days, then holds steady at watery, windy PGA National (Champions Course) for a closing 68 and a five-shot win over Brandon Hagy (66) at The Honda Classic. It was the second PGA TOUR victory for Jones, 40, sending him to the Masters Tournament next month for just the second time. But it was also a win for Hagy, who began the week as an alternate and enjoyed his best-ever result on his 30th birthday. Here are five stories you may have missed from The Honda Classic. 1. Jones hopes he's late bloomer After becoming the fourth player in his 40s to win this season - Stewart Cink (Safeway Open), Sergio Garcia (Sanderson Farms Championship), Brian Gay (Bermuda Championship) - Jones was candid about his career. He'd had a solid run at Arizona State, but as a pro had had a sometimes-rocky go of it on the "cut-throat" TOUR. Could life begin at 40? "I’ve probably underachieved, in my opinion, for what I could have done," said Jones, a two-time Australian Open winner whose experience in the wind served him well at PGA National. "But I’ve got some time left. I feel like my game’s getting better as I get older. I’m hitting it better, I’m hitting it longer, so there’s nothing to say that that won’t happen." Jones' opening 61 was +10.49 strokes better than the field in Strokes Gained: Total, the best of any player at this event since 2007 and the 11th best on TOUR since 2004. His five-shot win tied the tournament's largest margin of victory (Jack Nicklaus, 1977; Camilo Villegas, 2010). He went from 60th to 11th in the FedExCup, and 83rd to 49th in the world. For more on Jones, click here. 2. Hagy gets needed career boost Brandon Hagy gave himself an excellent 30th birthday present with a final-round 66 to finish solo second, the culmination of a potentially life-changing week. Hagy began the week as an alternate, practicing back home in Scottsdale, Arizona, on Monday. When things began to break his way, he got a flight to South Florida at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. He touched down around midnight, and upon waking up in his hotel room Wednesday morning learned that Kramer Hickok had WD'd - Hagy was in. And he made the most of it. His 76-66 weekend and runner-up finish catapulted him 101 spots up the FedExCup standings, from 178th to 77th, making him the biggest mover of the week. It was also a huge boost for a player who has struggled with injuries (wrist, back) and inconsistent play. "It’s been an interesting couple years," said Hagy, a 2014 Cal-Berkeley grad (Business Administration). "Obviously, the pandemic, technically I lost my card last year, but still having an opportunity to play out here this year, I was pretty far down the FedExCup coming into this week. But this is a good week for me to set up the rest of the season." 3. McCarthy finally sees good result Denny McCarthy was in the mix at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard but closed with a 76 to finish T26. He was back in the thick of it for the first half of THE PLAYERS Championship before a 75-75 weekend set him back to a T55 result. He seemed to be headed down the same road at the Honda, where he stumbled with a third-round 74, but a 67 on Sunday steadied him for a T3 finish, his best result in 91 starts on TOUR. "It was tough after the past few weeks to kind of pick myself up and come out to this grinder of a golf course," he said, "but managed to put four good rounds together - really just one little stretch yesterday away from being right in the thick of the golf tournament." For McCarthy, who went 4 over on the Bear Trap holes (Nos. 15-17) on Saturday, it was his first ever top-three finish in his 91st start. He moved from 92nd to 68th in the FedExCup. 4. Mickelson trending upward Phil Mickelson, who has mostly struggled this season but was coming off a T35 finish at THE PLAYERS Championship, saw more positive signs with a T25 at the Honda. It was the 50-year-old's best result in 10 TOUR starts this season and included 15 birdies and a final-round eagle at the par-5 third. There were also some gaffes. The watery par-4 11th hole was most problematic as Mickelson triple-bogeyed the hole Friday and doubled it on Sunday. "I would just say that, look, I made a lot of progress," he said, "in that there was a lot of difficult shots here with a lot of water and I made a lot of committed swings, and that was a plus. I also made a lot of birdies, and that’s a plus. I obviously had a few, couple of big numbers and I’ll have to clean some things up, but I’m seeing glimpses of playing the way I feel I’m capable of." 5. Chase Koepka: Not just Brooks' brother Chase Koepka, 27, carded a final-round 67 to finish T30. His sixth made cut in eight TOUR starts was also the fifth time he's posted three rounds in the 60s. The local resident has been playing mostly in Europe and was happy to get to perform for friends and family, including his father, who followed him around despite recent open-heart surgery. Big brother Brooks, the four-time major winner, has been dealing with an injury and didn't play, but still chimed in on FaceTime with words of encouragement. "I think takeaways on the week, just needed to drive the ball just a little bit better," Chase said. "I was just a fraction off. Really other than that, I gained a lot of confidence." For more on Koepka, click here. TOUR TOP 10

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