Collin Morikawa says he felt “sadness” after losing a six-stroke lead at the Sentry Tournament of Champions.
The former World No.2 was winless last year but looked certain to pick up his first victory since November 2021’s DP World Tour Championship before losing out to Jon Rahm after the Spaniard’s 10-under-par 63 final round at Kapalua.
“A little bit of both,” Morikawa said on whether he lost the tournament or Jon Rahm won it. The American shot one-under-par around the low-scoring Kapalua on Sunday but three consecutive bogeys at 14, 15 and 16 handed the tournament to the charging Spaniard.
His back nine of 39, two-over-par, paled in comparison to Rahm’s closing 31, six-under, which included three consecutive birdies at 12, 13 and 14 followed by an eagle at the 15th and then a birdie at the 18th.
“I mean one-under on this course is not a good score. It really isn’t,” Morikawa said.
“I was three-under through whatever, six holes. Three-putted 5 as well. He still shot 63. But I still, you know, I still had it within reach. If I don’t make those bogeys and I make par, we’re right there.
“So he definitely made the birdies when he needed to. But I also made bogeys. When you’re getting bogeys at that time of the tournament they’re costly. I definitely felt the weight of that.”
The two-time Major champion couldn’t hide his disappointment following the round, which he finished off with a birdie on the par-5 18th to end the tournament as runner-up at 25-under-par and two back of Rahm.
“Sadness. I don’t know. It sucks,” he said. “You work so hard and you give yourself these opportunities and just bad timing on bad shots and kind of added up really quickly. Don’t know what I’m going to learn from this week, but it just didn’t seem like it was that far off. It really wasn’t. Yeah, it sucks.”
(Image credit: Getty Images)
The 26-year-old described it as the lowlight of his career. “I would say so. Can’t really think of anything else. Yeah, it’s hard to look at the positives, it really is.”
And what next for Morikawa? He’s going to enjoy Hawaii for a couple of days before starts at the Farmers Insurance Open, WM Phoenix Open and the Genesis Invitational.
“I’m going to take two days off and enjoy Hawaii a little bit more,” he said. “It’s not going to be as great, but it will still be good. But, yeah, my mind’s already thinking about what we need to do. It’s going to hurt, but I got to get over it because we’re still in the very early parts of the season.”
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