Numbers to Know: PGA Championship

Welcome to Numbers to Know, where we’ll take a closer look at Collin Morikawa’s historic victory in the PGA Championship. 1. YOUNG GUN: Morikawa, 23, shot 129 in the final two rounds at TPC Harding Park. It is the lowest weekend score ever shot by a men’s major winner. Morikawa’s 64 on Sunday also ties the lowest final-round score by a PGA Championship winner in the event’s history; Steve Elkington also shot 64 in his win in the 1995 PGA Championship. Morikawa is the third-youngest winner of the PGA Championship since World War II, behind only Rory McIlroy and Jack Nicklaus. Morikawa earned his third TOUR win, and first major, in his 29th PGA TOUR start. In Tiger Woods’ 29th PGA TOUR start, he won the 1997 Masters for his first major and fourth PGA TOUR title. 2. STRAIGHT KNOCKER: Morikawa led the field in driving accuracy, hitting 39 of 56 fairways. That was two more than anyone else in the field. He hit the short grass 70% of the time, while the field only hit the fairway half the time. Morikawa is the first player since 2010 to win a major while leading the field in driving accuracy. Louis Oosthuizen did it in the 2010 Open Championship at St. Andrews, though those fairways were just a little wider than TPC Harding Park’s. The PGA TOUR has stats from the three majors in the United States dating to 1983. It has stats from The Open Championship since 2003. These are the only four players in those stats to win majors while leading in driving accuracy. 3. EIGHT IS GREAT: This was by far the best putting week of Morikawa’s career. Perhaps it was being back in California or on a course that he played in college. It couldn’t have come at a better time. He ranks 140th in Strokes Gained: Putting this season, but led the PGA field in that statistic. He gained more than eight strokes on the greens at TPC Harding Park after never gaining more than five strokes in a single event. Before last week, Morikawa had never finished a single TOUR event in the top 10 of that statistic.

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