Collin Morikawa shot a 3-under 69 in the final round of the WGC-Workday Championship on Sunday, earning a three-stroke victory.
The WGC-Workday Championship at The Concession was the first PGA TOUR event held at the Jack Nicklaus and Tony Jacklin-designed course. It provided plenty of excitement, with treacherous water-lined holes along with long par 3s, reachable par 5s, and a drivable par 4.
Double and triple bogeys were not unusual, with an occasional quadruple bogey and above popping up on scorecards. The venue had just six weeks to prepare for the event after COVID-19 protocol concerns prompted a move from Mexico City. The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla., was in great condition and turned out to be a terrific site for the tournament.
Favorites Don’t Fare Well
Forty-seven of the top 50 players in the world were in the 72-player field, but none of the top 10 odds favorites mounted a serious charge up the leaderboard. Dustin Johnson was the favorite coming into the week with odds of +525, but an opening-round 77 took him out of contention, and he ended up tied for 54th at 5-over-par.
Jon Rahm was second in the odds at +850, but after an opening-round 68, he ballooned to a 76 on Friday and finished the tournament in a tie for 32nd at 4-under-par. Xander Schauffele was next at +1100 but never got going, failing to shoot better than 71 to end up tied for 39th at 1-under-par.
The player that was the highest in the odds listing who had a chance to win was Viktor Hovland at 11th in the odds at +2250. Hovland finished his second round by making a quadruple-bogey 8 on the ninth hole, his final one of the day. He rebounded to shoot 66 and 67 on the weekend to finish 15-under-par, good for a second-place tie.
The next three players on the list, Webb Simpson, Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed also made appearances on the leaderboard over the final two rounds. Koepka, along with Billy Horschel, joined Hovland in second place.
Morikawa, who was a +4650 longshot in the futures betting, rode five consecutive birdies and seven in eight holes during Saturday’s third round to jump out to a six-shot lead.
Morikawa Comes Out On Top
Morikawa, who was a +4650 longshot in the futures betting, rode five consecutive birdies and seven in eight holes during Saturday’s third round to jump out to a six-shot lead. Horschel eventually caught him on Sunday, but Morikawa quickly answered with two birdies in his next three holes to regain control of the tournament.
The rest of the top 10 were Scottie Scheffler (+5500), Louis Oosthuizen (+100,000), Rory McIlroy (+1650), Webb Simpson (+2250), Jason Kokrak (+7000) and Patrick Reed (+3150). Morikawa was one of our three underdog picks to win the tournament, making it the third week in a row one of our highlighted players has been victorious.
The WGC-Workday Championship at The Concession was the fourth PGA TOUR title for the 24-year-old, who played collegiately at the University of California-Berkeley. He joined Tiger Woods as the only golfers to win a WGC event and a major championship by the age of 24.
He’s ranked sixth in the world and moved up to 14th in the FedEx Cup standings with the 550 points he earned with the victory.
