Looks like Justin Thomas found his comfort zone again

From a moment of silence to remember George Floyd, to no fan noise, to new noises players never noticed before, the PGA Tour’s return definitely looked and sounded different.

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SAN FRANCISCO – When it mattered most, being short proved a great advantage for Collin Morikawa. This is not about his diminutive stature but rather his length off the tee. TPC Harding Park was a bombers’ paradise until the critical moment of the PGA Championship on Sunday. When Morikawa reached the short par-4 16th. RELATED: Final leaderboard | The clubs Morikawa used to win | So close but so far for Koepka, Casey, others At 294-yards on Sunday the hole was inviting players to have a crack, particularly as nine of them had been part of the lead during a frantic final round. Someone had to step up. Problem was, in these modern times of big hitters, for most of them, 294 yards is too short to wail away with driver. Bryson DeChambeau hits his drives over 350 yards, so to Tony Finau. Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Jason Day, Matthew Wolff, Cameron Champ … the list of long hitters in contention was long. But they’d have to take 3-wood, or try to take something off their longest club, finesse the ball in the soupy heavy air. Morikawa had the perfect number for his driver. The same driver that had helped him to lead the field in driving accuracy for the week. Funny thing is, pre-tournament he was certain he wouldn’t be going for that green at all. “I told Colt Knost, he saw me Wednesday afternoon practicing on there, and he asked me if I was ever going to go for it. I told him a quick no, it’s too much into the wind, why go for it. I didn’t think the pin was going to be where it was,” Morikawa said. But with the tee up and pin sitting in the middle where a ball rolling up onto the green would feed towards it was just too tempting. Particularly given just a few weeks back, at the Workday Charity Open at Muirfield Village, he’d had similar success when the 14th hole was played from a similar distance. Morikawa decided to go for it. And the rest will live in golf history forever more. His ball landed perfectly and rolled up to seven feet. Soon after Morikawa buried the eagle putt and took a commanding lead he would not relinquish. At just 23 he is a major champion. A three time PGA TOUR winner already in just 29 starts. He has more wins than missed cuts. “Those are moments I’m always going to remember. I want to say it was 278 front, 294 hole. My ball went 291, exactly how I played it. It just had to be a normal driver for me. I didn’t have to do anything special. Thankfully I don’t hit it 330,” he grinned. The only downside was only a small smattering of people were there to see it live thanks to these COVID-19 times. It was a shot that deserved a roar to rival anything Tiger Woods heard in his prime. And he would have received it. After all he’s a California kid who went to college at Cal Berkeley. They would have been going berserk. “This is the one time I really wish there were crowds right there,” Morikawa said. “I heard some claps. Obviously not a ton. But the claps could mean I’m on the green and I’ve got 50 feet. Walking up I knew it was right above the tier, and you had to make it. I had to make that putt. Two strokes is a lot different than one stroke coming down 18.” Indeed it was. It was in the end unassailable for anyone else. And it secured history. At age 23 years, 6 months, 3 days, he becomes the third-youngest PGA Championship winner since World War II, behind only Rory McIlroy and Jack Nicklaus. Woods won a PGA at 23 also. “It’s great company. It’s been crazy, because this entire start of my professional career, I see all the things comparing to Tiger … but Tiger is on a completely different level. I think we all know that,” Morikawa gushes. “But any time you’re in the conversation of the greats, Jack, Rory, Tiger, no matter who it is, if you’re in that conversation, you’re doing something well.” He is also just the third player since 1970 to win a major in two or fewer major starts after his U.S. Open appearance last year and is just the ninth player to win the PGA Championship in their tournament debut. His weekend rounds of 65-64 for 129 sets the lowest closing 36-hole score in PGA Championship history, beating Woods 130 from 2018 and the 64 ties the PGA Championship record for lowest final-round score by a winner with Steve Elkington (1995). The win sent Morikawa to second in the FedExCup standings and fifth in the world rankings. While the golf world continues to be a little taken aback by the quick success, it’s not a surprise to the man himself. “I’ve believed in myself since day one. I haven’t let up from that,” he said. “When I woke up today, I was like, this is meant to be. This is where I feel very comfortable. This is where I want to be, and I’m not scared from it. I think if I was scared from it, the last few holes would have been a little different.” Morikawa was an amateur standout so his confidence is not misplaced. Clearly he has the game to back up any bravado he brings to the course. It’s not arrogance, it’s just pure will to win. And with the FedExCup Playoffs upcoming and another six majors and a PLAYERS among tournaments in the next 11 months he is ready to continue his rise. “It doesn’t stop here. I’ve got a very good taste of what this is like, what a major championship is like,” he said. “The majors are going to be circled in, just like everyone else, but I’ve got to focus on every single week. I’m trying to win every single week. I’m not trying to come out and just win the majors. I’m 23. This is my first full year. “I love golf. I love every part of it. I love being in this position and I love just being able to come out here and play with a bunch of guys that love the sport, too.” The sport loves him back. And will for a long time to come.

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Welcome to the Monday Finish, where we’re still trying to replicate Jordan Spieth’s bunker shot. Looks like we’re going to be here a while. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. The aftermath of a milestone is the perfect opportunity for reflection, and it may be time to admit we’ve failed to appreciate the true level of Spieth’s talent. Every little lull in his game, like the two consecutive cuts he missed in May, lead to questions about his game. But Spieth’s victory at the Travelers Championship, and the dramatic fashion in which he did it, serve as a strong reminder that he is a special talent. This was the 10th victory of his career. He’s only 23 years old. It’s impressive for a player to earn his PGA TOUR card before turning 24. Spieth already owns two majors and a FedExCup. The high standard he set in 2015 makes people under-appreciate what he’s accomplished since. He’s won two times in each of the past two seasons, and he ranks high in every possible metric: fourth in the FedExCup, third in the Official World Golf Ranking and second on the U.S. Presidents Cup team rankings. No, he’s not immune to bad weeks, but they should be placed in a larger context. We’re watching Spieth compile a resume worthy of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Those who have talked about Spieth’s slumps may just be too impatient. Since October 2014, he’s never gone more than 12 PGA TOUR starts without a win. Spieth and Dustin Johnson are the only players to post multiple victories in each of the past two seasons. In 16 starts this season, Spieth has seven top-10s, including five finishes in the top three. Spieth’s dramatic hole-out did more than net another PGA TOUR win. It reminded us of what he’s capable of. 2. Spieth’s win continued an impressive run for the 25-and-under set. It used to be that any player in his 20s was considered young, but now we see a growing contingent of players who are racking up victories before they turn 25. There have been 12 wins this season by a player 25 or younger. Eight different players have combined to win those 12 titles. Justin Thomas has three wins this season, while Spieth and Hideki Matsuyama have two wins apiece. The other winners this season who were 25 or younger at the time of their victory are Jon Rahm, Cameron Smith, Si Woo Kim, Daniel Berger and Mackenzie Hughes. 3. Berger may have cost himself a spot on last year’s Ryder Cup team at last year’s Travelers Championship, but this year at TPC River Highlands he all but clinched his spot on Team USA. Berger, who lost a three-shot lead in the final round of last year’s Travelers, made up a three-shot deficit Sunday to catch Spieth before falling in a playoff. The runner-up finish moved Berger to fourth in the U.S. Presidents Cup standings. Berger isn’t short on confidence, or distance, and should fit in quite well as a rookie on the young team. Half of the top 10 players in the U.S. point standings would be representing their country for the first time in professional competition. The five potential newcomers are Berger, Justin Thomas, Kevin Kisner, Kevin Chappell and Brian Harman. The win also moved Berger to eighth in the FedExCup as he looks to make his third consecutive TOUR Championship. He finished 11th in the FedExCup en route to winning the 2015 Rookie of the Year Award, and was 26th last year. 4. Rory McIlroy’s putting woes continue. He finished 17th at the Travelers despite ranking 69th (out of the 74 players who completed 54 holes) in Strokes Gained: Putting “Tee-to-green, I’m right where I need to be,â€� said McIlroy, who ranks 65th in the FedExCup. “(I’m) driving the ball as well as I ever have, and hitting my irons pretty good. If I could sharpen up the short game a little bit and just convert a few more chances I’m giving myself, I feel like I’ll be right there for the next few weeks.â€� Hunter Mahan, who beat McIlroy in the championship match of the 2012 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, was one of the players who tied McIlroy last week at TPC River Highlands. Mahan’s game has fallen on hard times. He began the week ranked 215th in the FedExCup and 889th in the Official World Golf Ranking. The T17 was Mahan’s first top-50 finish since he finished 43rd at the Farmers Insurance Open in January 2016. Mahan now ranks 195th in the FedExCup and 723rd in the world ranking. 5. Before Spieth’s bunker shot overshadowed all that occurred last week at TPC River Highlands, the play of Monday qualifier Chase Sieffert was among the week’s interesting storylines. Seiffert, a Florida State teammate with Berger and Brooks Koepka, was one shot off the lead after birdieing his first hole Saturday, but faded to weekend rounds of 72-71 to finish 43rd. He had the opportunity to be the first Monday qualifier to finish in the top 10 this season. Only four Monday qualifiers have posted top-25s. This was the second successful qualifying attempt this season for Seiffert, who finished T74 at The RSM Classic. FIVE INSIGHTS 1. This probably should come as no surprise, but Spieth was among the week’s best from around the green. He finished second in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green, averaging +1.51 strokes gained per round. It was the best performance around the greens by a winner this season (at a tournament where all four rounds were measured by ShotLink). Rod Pampling averaged +1.30 Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green in his win at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, while Kim averaged +1.23 in his win at THE PLAYERS Championship. 2. Perhaps Spieth’s iron play should get more credit, though. He leads the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green this season, and ranked seventh in that category at the Travelers Championship (+1.25). Spieth average proximity to the hole on approach shots (27 feet, 0 inches) was nearly 15 feet better than the field average (41’, 8â€�). Spieth won despite not having his best stuff with his putter, finishing 31st in Strokes Gained: Putting (+0.57). 3. This was just the fourth time this season that a player has won after losing strokes to the field off the tee. Spieth ranked 56th in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee last week, averaging -0.26 strokes per round. Spieth owns two of the four wins this season by a player who lost strokes to the field off the tee. He also did so in his win at the AT&T Pebble Beach 4. Spieth joined Tiger Woods as the only players in the modern era to win 10 times by the age of 24. Woods won 15 times before he turned 24. It’s impossible for Spieth to match that number, as he’ll celebrate his 24th birthday on July 27. 5. This is the 10th week this season that Spieth has ranked in the top five of the FedExCup. TOP THREE VIDEOS 1. That rake throw. 2. I feel like we’ve seen this before. 3. Until Sunday, this was my favorite Jordan Spieth bunker shot of the week.

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