AUSTIN, Texas (KTRK) — On Thursday at Austin Country Club, Collin Morikawa and Sergio Garcia were the highlight of the second round of the World Golf Championship-Dell Technologies Match Play tournament.
However, Garcia was not informed until the back nine.
Garcia’s game went into overdrive when they did, as he won three straight holes on 14, 15, and 16 and scrambled from a wayward tee shot under the oak trees with one of his legendary recovery shots to nail a 3-foot par putt on 18 for the draw.
Make no mistake about that, though.
This tie was “won” by Garcia, and “lost” by Morikawa.
At least in terms of emotion.
Of course, everyone expected this round two match to be a battle of the top ball-strikers in the game, pitting the world’s second-ranked player against one of the game’s most seasoned veterans. This was a showcase contest, and both teams displayed their best play, albeit at separate periods.
Sergio Garcia trailed No. 2-seeded Collin Morikawa by three holes after the 11th hole of his second-round match, but rallied to force a tie.
“I’m not going to lie,” Garcia responded, relieved. “I’m satisfied with it.”
Morikawa aspires to be able to say the same. He let it slip away from him after creating a 3-up lead after nine holes and maintaining it for the first two holes on the back nine, leaving both golfers at 1-0-1 in Group 2 play.
Their immediate futures will be decided on Friday when Garcia takes on Jason Kokrak, who improved to 1-1 with a 3-1 win against Robert MacIntyre, and Morikawa takes on the winless MacIntyre. The winners progress to the quarterfinals on Saturday, a spot Garcia has won the last two years.
“I still have a chance to get out of group play,” Morikawa remarked.
Longer-term prospects have a longer shelf life.
Morikawa, a California whiz kid, has already won two major titles, making him only the eighth player since 1920 to win three majors before the age of 25. He did it by winning the 2020 PGA Championship in his hometown, as well as the British Open last year by two strokes over Texas’ Jordan Spieth, when Morikawa went 31 holes without making a bogey.
Spieth was the seventh player in 2015 to accomplish that amazing feat at such a young age.
While Garcia is now ranked 49th in the world and Spieth is ranked 15th, Morikawa is a strong No. 2 in the world, behind just Jon Rahm and on his way to become No. 1. He has five PGA Tour victories, two of which are majors, as well as a tie for fourth in last year’s US Open and a tie for eighth in his PGA Championship defense.
That, my friends, is consistency.
Garcia explained, “When you play a guy who’s so solid and who’s such a fantastic player, he’s not a guy who’s going to give things away lightly.” “However, I took care of the first seven or eight holes.”
Garcia, who is almost two decades Morikawa’s senior, was resourceful if not polished in the early going, but displayed the savviness and ingenuity of his game that has helped him become one of the sport’s top match-play artists.
He hasn’t been playing his best lately. However, the 42-year-old Spaniard, who lives part-time at Spanish Oaks, has only one top-10 finish this season, a tie for seventh at Mayakoba, and one PGA Tour triumph since his stunning Masters victory in 2017.
Morikawa has been tearing it up everywhere except Austin, where he failed to advance out of group play last year after going 0-2-1 and losing to eventual champion Billy Horschel, but he’s clearly in the thick of it this week.
He admits to being “a little bit” irritated by the change of events, but he gives respect to a player who, with 29 triumphs, has more match-play victories than anybody save Tiger Woods, Matt Kuchar, and Ian Poulter, and has been a fixture for the Europeans with 10 Ryder Cup appearances.
“Sergio hit three straight birdies,” Morikawa said. “Birdies, on the other hand, are going to win holes.”
Austin’s adopted son could never get untracked early, dragging his irons and burning hole after hole with his putts, but when he needed to, he came on in a hurry.
On a crystal clear Thursday, the 25-year-old Morikawa seemed as if he would school his more experienced opponent as he systematically built up a 3-up lead on the front nine.
Even the support of Longhorn fans didn’t seem to help.
Garcia is married to Angela Akins, the daughter of Marty Akins, a Texas All-American wishbone quarterback, and his wife Pam.
When announcer Ed Clements presented him on the first tee, he was greeted with thunderous ovation and flashed the Hook ’em Horns sign. When he got to the final hole’s green, he performed the same thing.
Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian was in the audience the day before, cheering on Garcia in his victory over MacIntyre. The two are inseparable. Sarkisian even made an appearance at Garcia’s junior golf tournament.
This premier duo drew the largest crowds on Thursday, particularly on the front nine, where fans lined the fairways and sang Garcia’s name.
His game, on the other hand, was adamant about not cooperating.
It was essentially a game of new money vs. old money.
Garcia was put on the back foot right away by Morikawa. On the first hole, his lob wedge shot backspinned and landed inches from the cup for a conceded birdie. Garcia’s seven-foot effort sailed wide, and he was down one from the start.
After both hitting fantastic approach shots to similar distances from the pin, Morikawa flipped a coin to see who would putt first, he won the fifth hole to go 2 up. He subsequently made a second birdie with his 10-footer.
On the sixth hole, Morikawa’s approach shot from the rough soared right, bounced high off a slope, and landed deep in the mulch beyond the cart path, about 100 yards from the green. On PGA Tour Live, golfer-turned-broadcaster Dylan Frittelli joked, “A different zip code.”
Morikawa might have mailed it in from the middle of nowhere, but he instead salvaged a par with a big chip. Garcia’s 15-foot birdie shot slid by, and he was unable to cash in.
“I should get an assist,” PGA volunteer scorer Terry Whitlow of Carrollton remarked as he tossed his ball to her. He was able to get rid of his naughty ball.”
When he hammered his tee shot on No. 7 but couldn’t convert, he knew there was more where that came from. On No. 9, his approach ball landed in a fairway bunker buried in the canyon below the green, costing him a bogey and putting him 3-down at the turn.
On the back nine, the two traded punches, and Garcia’s bacon was saved by a crucial par on 11.
“I got a little bit of happiness in me when that putt on 11 was put in the bag,” he remarked. After he made a long putt for par, my putt on 15 (from 30 feet) was enormous.”
There was more happiness to come.
Garcia took advantage of a rare Morikawa bogey on the par-5 12th, but the 2 seed came back with a birdie putt from 14 feet, leading Morikawa to fist pump.
Garcia increased the pressure on his opponent by sinking a 10-foot birdie putt on 14 — his first of the day — to close to within two holes with four holes to play. When Morikawa’s tee ball landed in the bunker on the 17th hole, Garcia’s 18-foot birdie putt fell just inches short.
Then came the save on 18 with a fantastic low sand wedge to the green, keeping Garcia alive with a lot riding on Friday and the majors starting next month.
“I still need to work on my game,” he admitted. “I’m not going to tell you anything. There are a few areas I need to improve on. I’ve been playing okay, but not up to my usual standards. “It’s not fantastic.”
But he’s in good enough shape to be tied.
