KAPALUA, Maui – Every so often it all falls into place. So it’s gone for Collin Morikawa, the only player in the field without a bogey and the 54-hole leader by six after shooting a third-round 65 at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. “Yeah, it’s been pretty simple today,” said Morikawa, who will be playing for his sixth PGA TOUR title (two of which came at majors) on Sunday. “Kind of over the past three days, is where I’ve been looking is kind of where the ball’s been going. I kind of know what is doing right and when I hit a bad shot, kind of what the mistake was. That’s the biggest thing.” Scottie Scheffler, who would go back to world No. 1 with a two-way tie for third or better, shot 69 to tie Matt Fitzpatrick (66) and J.J. Spaun (69) at 18 under, a half dozen shots behind. It will be hard to catch the leader, for reasons both obvious (a comfortable lead) and not. The obvious reason is Morikawa is not only crushing Kapalua from tee to green (he often does, no matter the course), but he’s also putting lights-out. His 15-foot birdie putt on 18 Saturday, his fourth birdie in the last five holes, was emblematic of his week. The key stat for the leader so far: Morikawa, who ranked 131st in Strokes Gained: Putting last season, is No. 1 for the week at the Sentry. He gives much of the credit to new putting coach Stephen Sweeney, an Irishman who is based in Florida. “He’s putting really good,” Spaun said of Morikawa. “He doesn’t miss a shot. It’s a hard combo to beat.” Morikawa has ranked inside the top 10 in SG: Putting in four tournaments, and won two of them. He’s also first in scrambling (6-for-6), which bodes well for his new relationship with short game specialist and TOUR winner Parker McLachlin. The other factor working in Morikawa’s favor is good Maui vibes. His paternal grandparents were born here and owned a restaurant in Lahaina. When the Maui News wrote about it, a reader found an old matchbook from that restaurant on eBay, bought it for $7.50, and sent it to Morikawa via an assist from NBC’s Mark Rolfing, the PGA TOUR, and Morikawa’s agent. It says: “Morikawa restaurant Delicious meals Beer-wine and sake M. Morikawa prop.” “It’s amazing,” said Morikawa, who is with his wife, brother, and parents this week. “I mean, to think what Front Street means to the island of Maui and to the city of Lahaina. Every time we walk by, my dad, I know he just kind of goes back to being a kid.” The abundance of positive mojo at Kapalua comes in the first week of a new year that couldn’t get here fast enough for Morikawa, who fought his game (his signature fade went missing); tried a new putter (changing to a mallet at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, where he missed the cut); did not win; and generally gnashed his teeth. For a dynamic young player who had become the first to win the PGA Championship and Open Championship in his first cracks at both, the season was an unhappy grind. “That middle of the season really from PLAYERS all the way through playoffs just felt like it never ended,” he said. “It was just like I play a tournament, you get back home, you play another tournament, play two more. You’re always searching.” He rediscovered his fade, and in November started working with Sweeney – the first putting coach of his career. Feeling more at ease on the greens, Morikawa finished T15 at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba, his best result of the fall. It was 13 months ago that Morikawa took a five-shot lead into the final round of the unofficial Hero World Challenge – and lost. In retrospect, it seems to have been an omen for a forgettable 2022. But as he picks apart the Plantation Course, with his tee-to-green game in peak form and his putting better than ever, Morikawa is making all that a distant memory.
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