sport news Collin Morikawa is the one to catch now after brilliant triumph at The Open

sport news Collin Morikawa is the one to catch now after brilliant triumph at The Open
sport news Collin Morikawa is the one to catch now after brilliant triumph at The Open

The last two men to win their second major faster than Collin Morikawa had a date in common: 1902, the year of their birth.

Gene Sarazen was quickest, Bobby Jones not far behind. They were born the year the Boer War ended, the year Land of Hope and Glory was first performed, Manchester United and Real Madrid were founded, postcards as we know them — picture on the front, message on the back — were invented, as were teddy bears. It was a long time ago.

See footage of Sarazen now and golf was a very different game. There is footage of him at the 1970 Open. 

Collin Morikawa held off the challenge of Jordan Spieth to clinch the Claret Jug in Sandwich

Collin Morikawa held off the challenge of Jordan Spieth to clinch the Claret Jug in Sandwich

Gene Sarazen and Bobby Jones were the last two men to win two majors earlier in their careers

Gene Sarazen and Bobby Jones were the last two men to win two majors earlier in their careers 

Between inserting his tee into the turf and driving takes seven seconds. Sarazen was 68 by then. He finished 22 over par.

So we're talking history here. What Morikawa is doing, too, is historic. He won the second major he played and now this, his eighth. 

By comparison, Tiger Woods took 18 majors to achieve this milestone. Not that Morikawa is the new Woods. That is the beauty of golf. That we have been here before, and via various routes.

Pursuing Morikawa ferociously but in vain along the back straight was Jordan Spieth, who cut the lead to one shot coming off the 14th, but was bested by two in the end. There was a time, and it was not so long ago, that Spieth was also the future of golf.

It took him nine tries to win his first major, but then he swept up three in 11. He was going to dominate. 

And then: nothing. The same with Rory McIlroy. He won four majors across 1,148 days and it is now 2,534 since his last victory of such substance.

So the way Morikawa separated from the pack on Sunday was both daunting yet also strangely trivial. It could be that we are about to see the Morikawa years, the way Woods came to bestride this game.

Equally, we could be sitting here five years on, wondering what happened. Another in the chasing group, Louis Oosthuizen, won the Open in 2010 at the age of 27. 

He probably thought it wouldn't be his last, either. Since then, second at the US Masters, the US Open (twice), the Open and the PGA Championship (twice).

Jordan Spieth has suffered a succession of near misses since his last taste of major glory

Jordan Spieth has suffered a succession of near misses since his last taste of major glory

That's the sport: in 2021, Phil Mickelson became the oldest winner of a major, and also shot his worst opening round at the Open in 26 visits. How to explain any of it?

That golf, for all the talk of length and yardage, is primarily played in the inches behind the ears is the common explanation. 

How else to rationalise Spieth's fall from the world's No 1 golfer in 2015, and its No 2 in 2017, to 85th in 2020.

How to compute McIlroy's wild lurches, not year by year, or tournament by tournament, but hole to hole. 

He made 17 birdies around Royal St George's — as many as Morikawa made in his first 62 holes, and two fewer than the champion across 72.

It should have been enough to contend, had McIlroy not given the same net value back in bogeys. 

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