Reigning US PGA champion Collin Morikawa is staring a unique first-ever European Tour double when he tees-up in this week’s season-ending DP World Tour championship.
Morikawa is lying third in the Race to Dubai standings behind Patrick Reed and Tommy Fleetwood, and knows victory in the season-ending DP World Tour Championship will ensure he becomes the first American in the 48-year history of the Tour to win the money-list title.
As well, Morikawa is also in line to be honoured with the ‘Rookie of the Year’ title given the decision in his COVID-19 shortened season will be made by a European Tour committee of four rathen the normal highest-ranked on the Race to Dubai as was the case last year when Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre won the ‘once-in-a-career’ title.
Colin Morikawa lifts the Rodman Wanamaker Trophy and now is staring at a double first in the history of the European Tour – Being crowned European No. 1 and being named ‘Rookie of the Year’
The World No. 1 ranked Morikawa elected to take-up affiliate membership of the European Tour in February and would normally need to contest four events to be eligible to win the Harry Vardon Trophy, but that requirement has been waived this year due to the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’ve been looking forward to this trip and I didn’t really make my decision for a while, but it was on my radar and obviously I’ve put myself in a really good position to close out 2020 on a great note,” said Morikawa.
“To be here and make this my first start on the European Tour means a lot. I think winning the Race to Dubai would mean a lot for my career, for myself, because I want my game to travel.
“I want to be a world player. I want to be able to bring my game anywhere, adapt to the different places I come to and this is just the first step of doing that.
“I signed up for membership for next year already because I want to play out here.”
Morikawa’s PGA Championship win in August materialised in just his second appearance in a major and was his third win since turning professional in June 2019, but the 23-year-old describes his game since as “scrappy”.
“For me it comes down a lot to my head, the mental side, and after the PGA I was obviously very tired and very burnt out, but I just didn’t set new goals,” added Morikawa, who has already committed to next month’s Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
“I felt like I was almost complacent. I felt good after the major win. And I think a lot of people are, and that doesn’t mean like I was OK with it and I was satisfied with one.
“But I was satisfied for at least the next few weeks and that bled into the FedEx Cup play-offs and after that the Masters.
“I had three weeks off coming up until this week. I did a full reset. I looked at this as a very big tournament, a tournament I really want to win.
“So I sat myself down with my coach and we talked about goals and we talked about what I need to do to come out here and play really well, especially traveling so far halfway across the world.
“A lot has been put into my game and to kind of my head over the past week to get ready for this week.”
