2021 Open Championship: Collin Morikawa Has Chance at Making History
By Tim Letcher
Collin Morikawa went out early on Friday at the 2021 Open Championship. And by the time he was done, he had taken the lead and put himself into position to make history this week.
Morikawa opened play this week by shooting a 3-under par 67 on Thursday. But on Friday, he took it to an entirely different level.
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He got his round started right away with a birdie on the par-4 first hole. He then parred the next three holes to stay at that number.
Morikawa birdied the par-4 fifth hole to get to 2-under on his round. He would then par the sixth and seventh holes.
Late on his first nine, Morikawa birdied the par-4 eighth, then the par-4 ninth. That left him with a 4-under par 31 on his front nine.
Morikawa was nowhere near done.
He opened his back nine with a par on the 10th hole. Then, he birdied the 11th and 12th holes to get to 6-under par on his Friday round.
Morikawa parred the 13th hole before a birdie on the 14th. That got him to 7-under par.
His only blemish of the day came at the par-4 15th hole. There, he dropped a shot with his only bogey of the day.
Morikawa finished his round with three consecutive pars. That left him with a 6-under par round of 64. His cumulative total of 9-under par through two rounds gave him the lead through the morning wave.
Morikawa has a chance at a lot of history this week at the Open Championship. Here are some of the things he’s trying to accomplish:
He could become the second player to win the Open Championship and PGA Championship before the age of 25 (Tiger Woods is the other).
No player has ever won both the PGA Championship and the Open Championship in their debuts. Morikawa won the PGA in his debut last year and he’s making his Open Championship debut this week.
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If he wins, Morikawa will have needed the fewest number of starts to get to two major wins since Bobby Jones in 1926.
There are still 36 holes left, but Morikawa is looking at some serious history this week in England.