By Alex Myers
Wow, what a Sunday. And we’re not just saying that because it was the first major Sunday in golf in a looong time. No, the 2020 PGA Championship was an instant classic. And it wound up producing an instant superstar in Collin Morikawa. So without further ado, let’s tell the story of a wild final round in San Francisco with these 13 tweets.
Brooks Koepka may have been two behind entering the day, but he sure seemed like he was the man to beat. . . until he wasn’t:
Didn’t expect Brooks to get dropped from the coverage today, but here we are.
Out in 4-over 39.
Worst score of anyone inside the top 60.
— Ryan Lavner (@RyanLavnerGC) August 9, 2020
Speaking of Brooks, Rory McIlroy reignited the Brooks-DJ flames from Saturday. Well, thanks to our own Daniel Rapaport asking him about it:
Deleted the original tweet cuz I screwed up the transcript. So try No. 2…
Asked Rory about Brooks’ comments yesterday:
“I certainly wouldn’t say it…it’s different..sort of hard to knock a guy that’s got 21 wins on the PGA Tour, which is three times what Brooks has.”
— Daniel Rapaport (@Daniel_Rapaport) August 9, 2020
Nice job stirring the pot, Dan! Looking forward to Brooks mocking McIlroy for caring so much about regular tour wins. Let’s keep this thing going!
In other “news,” we following a decent finish by Tiger Woods, we learned that his off-weeks aren’t much fun (Go to 2:13 mark):
Tiger’s weeks off sound brutal.
Here he was after his final round. pic.twitter.com/eLGh46ES8k
— GOLFTV (@GOLFTV) August 9, 2020
“Puke sessions”? No thanks.
We were reminded that with no fans on the course, players need to be a bit more careful with what they say:
Justin Thomas didn’t like his putt pic.twitter.com/QhEqMVrefQ
— Real Super Dave (@SuperStatsDave) August 9, 2020
And we found out that Chris Webber is a big Cameron Champ fan when he sent plenty of positive vibes his way:
Tiger is my favorite- I love D.J. – Koepka- Day Fowler, Finau and Rory….. BUT LETS GO SACRAMENTO!!!!!! It’s MY MAN @Cameron__Champ – Sacramento’s Finest! .. it’s his time. Let’s get it!!!!!
— Chris Webber (@realchriswebber) August 9, 2020
But like the former NBA star, Champ remained stuck on no major victories. OK, so stuck isn’t the right word for a guy who is still only 25. He’ll be back.
Speaking of the NBA, Stephen Curry was at TPC Harding Park to take in the action:
Apparently, that whole no-fans rule doesn’t apply to two-time MVPs. Anyway, Steph picked a good golf tournament to illegally attend because it was tight down the stretch. Look at this leader board!
LMAO pic.twitter.com/4r29ULmPlV
— Christopher Powers (@CPowers14) August 9, 2020
That’s not even that great of a tweet, but it gets the job done and I wanted to throw Chris a bone because he was the only member of our Be Right Podcast (By the way, you should be listening to that every week because we are absolutely on fire right now) crew who didn’t bet on Morikawa. Poor guy.
Fiancée, peering up from her phone for the first time all evening and seeing Morikawa: “did he win?”
Me: “yes.”
Her: “did you bet on him?”
Me: “no.”
Her: “of course you didn’t.”
Me: pic.twitter.com/yYK3wMFtra
— Christopher Powers (@CPowers14) August 10, 2020
Ts & Ps, CP.
Ts & Ps to DJ as well. Dustin Johnson held the 54-hole lead then birdied the 55th hole to start his Sunday. Surely, he would close the deal this time, right? Wrong. Amazingly, the 21-time PGA Tour winner couldn’t get much going after than and remains stuck on one major.
I won’t know how to explain to my children how Dustin Johnson only won one major.
— deepfriedegg (@deep_fried_egg) August 10, 2020
At least he’s got one. Despite valiant efforts by Paul Casey and Tony Finau, they left majorless. For Casey, of course, it’s been a lot longer of a drought.
That’s a bit rude. But yeah, time to update the graphic. It’s 64 now.
Please update this @GOLFonCBS #PaulCasey pic.twitter.com/vsUb3Anmu2
— Smitty (@Smitty_801) August 10, 2020
Other guys like Jason Day and Scottie Scheffler made things interesting for a bit, but then Morikawa took over. And ironically, the young man known as arguably the best iron player took his first solo lead of the tournament after missing the green with his approach shot on No. 14:
MORIKAWA!!! CHIPS IT IN FOR THE LEAD pic.twitter.com/5KPm6tkW5Z
— GOLFonCBS (@GOLFonCBS) August 9, 2020
And then he really seized control with this incredible drive on No. 16 that set up an eagle:
Shot of the day/month/year for Collin Morikawa. pic.twitter.com/3TubR6LlQG
— GOLFTV (@GOLFTV) August 10, 2020
That’s two legendary shots in the span of about 20 minutes. Incredible. It was all part of a final-round 64 that gave him his first major title in just his second start in one of golf’s four biggest events. To further explain how good this guy has been since turning pro last year, allow me to get one of my own tweets in the mix. What the heck.
.@collin_morikawa as a pro on the PGA Tour:
27 starts
3 wins
1 missed cut
1 majorGood lord, what a stud.
— Alex Myers (@AlexMyers3) August 10, 2020
Morikawa’s only mistake? Not keeping the Wanamaker Trophy’s lid closed in the same manner he closed the door on his first major title:
Yep, the top comes off Collin ? pic.twitter.com/MbgMoOzUPt
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) August 10, 2020
He’ll be better prepared next time. At 23, he’s not going anywhere.