2021 WGC-Match Play: Top 10 power rankings at Austin CC
Collin Morikawa gets his first crack at the WGC-Match Play. He’s been outclassing the competition on the regular in stroke play. Will it translate to match play? I think yes.
Is Morikawa’s putting a drawback? Sure. But here’s the deal: You don’t necessarily have to hit every cup at this event. Some putts will be conceded. Others, you can put a little more gusto into trying to make it instead of worrying about the comebacker.
That should free up Morikawa, who has fiddled with different putting grips.
Otherwise, his game is so stellar and his headspace seems to be so calm. It’s what fueled him to a win recently at the WGC-Workday Championship and last year at the PGA Championship.
Morikawa’s group is filled with steady ball-strikers, so he can’t breeze on through. With that said, fellow Cal Golden Bear Max Homa and J.T. Poston are both making their tournament debuts so they won’t have that upper hand on Morikawa.
Homa has been playing quite well in 2021 and Horschel was T-2nd behind Morikawa at The Concession. With that said, Horschel hasn’t made it to the bracket rounds in both his WGC-Match Play appearances.
I project Morikawa to face in the round of 16 a player he’s generally lumped in with given how they broke into the pros around the same time, Viktor Hovland. This will be a doozy that I’d love to see a rematch of in the fall at Whistling Straits.
I see Morikawa sweating out a 2&1 win to get to the quarterfinals against Tony Finau. Finau in this scenario is coming off an upset of Bryson DeChambeau. I expect Finau to be drained from this win and will be polished off by Morikawa later in the afternoon.
Morikawa, 24, keeps it going in the semifinals on Sunday by fending off fellow WGC-Match Play first-timer, Sungjae Im.
Morikawa will get through this one fairly easily. That leaves enough fuel in the tank to hold off Justin Thomas just like he did in a playoff last year at Muirfield Village at the Workday Charity Open.
I bet Morikawa would love for Workday to swoop in and sponsor this event, too.