Well, that was unexpected.
When play started at Kapalua on Sunday for the final round of the Sentry Tournament of Champions, I did not expect two-time major winner Collin Morikawa to do anything other than successfully nurse a six-shot starting lead to the clubhouse to pick up the win in the first designated event. (It's not elevated anymore.)
And, for the first nine holes, Morikawa more or less did that. However, by the time he got to the back, he had a challenger in Jon Rahm that was playing well with nothing to lose. After going bogey-free throughout the first 66 holes of the tournament, Morikawa dropped three in a row on easy holes thanks to poor short-game and wedge play. The putter that had seemed invincible for the first three days went stone cold amidst a battery of tournament-saving putts. Rahm eagled 15, took the lead and then himself nursed it to the house with pars on 16 and 17 before making a birdie on 18 to close out the win.
Tournaments that start Sunday like this typically don't end this way, and Collin Morikawa is going to be befuddled that this happened. However, he's going to learn from this, and so should we.
Here are my main takeaways from the 2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions that can help us in subsequent weeks this season and hopefully at this tournament in future years.
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