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With shots like this eagle (embedded video) to open Round 3 on Tuesday, Collin Morikawa is the 2019 Pac-12 Champion individually after shooting -12 through 4 rounds.
The Cal senior has been one of the most consistent player in college golf for the past 3 years. The former finalist for the Ben Hogan Award (men’s golf’s version of the Heisman) in 2017 has finished in the top 5 individually in half of the tournaments in his collegiate career.
The Golf Channel has a great feature story on the Cal superstar both inside and outside the classroom in Collin Morikawa. Be sure to check out this video below.
Cal had a 3 shot lead on UCLA and a 5 shot lead on Stanford going into Wednesday’s Round 4, but the Golden Bears combined to shoot +17 (counting just the top 5 scores) in rather windy conditions. For their 11th Pac-12 title, Stanford ends up winning by 8 shots over the Bears; UCLA edges the Bears by 1 shots for 2nd place.
Morikawa and the entire Cal lineup had a great Tuesday. Morikawa shot -7 to lead the way for the Bears after -3 and -1 to open play on Monday. With an uneven Wednesday (shooting -1 with a strong back 9), Morikawa was still able to hold off Utah’s Kyler Dunkel (-8) and UCLA’s Cole Madey (-5) for the individual win.
The @CalMensGolf senior gets it done.
— Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) April 24, 2019
Collin Morikawa sinks the last shot to capture the 2019 #Pac12Golf individual title-- the @OpusBank #12Best moment. pic.twitter.com/BmxxHpiUnM
This is Morikawa’s first top 5 finish at the Pac-12. He finished in a tie for 6th in 2017 and 7th in 2018. This is his 5th individual win in his Cal career.
Collin Morikawa
— Cal Men's Golf (@CalMensGolf) April 24, 2019
2019 #Pac12Golf Individual Medalist#Cal #GoBears #NCAAGolf pic.twitter.com/PwRImOd4cC
Morikawa is only the 4th Cal Bears to win the individual Pac-12 title. Charlie Wi (on the PGA tour currently), Eric Mina (current assistant coach on Cal Men’s Golf), and Max Homa (also on the PGA tour currently - Homa also won the individual NCAA championship in 2013) are the other Bears to have won this honor.
Golden Bears will next wait to hear about their NCAA Regional placement. Despite not quite peaking yet, Cal Men’s Golf has enough firepower to make a seriously strong run at the 2019 NCAA team title - which would be the program’s 2nd NCAA team title with the current lone title coming in 2004. Unlike the Pac-12 championship (which is top 5 scores out of 6 players), the NCAA format is picking the top 4 scores out of 5 golfers per team.
GO BEARS!