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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Collin Morikawa birdied the 72nd hole to win the 2026 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am by one stroke over Min Woo Lee and Sepp Straka.
He ended a 28-month winless spell with his seventh career Tour title, shooting a 5-under 67 at Pebble Beach Golf Links and finished with a 72-hole aggregate of 22-under 266.
Morikawa surged into contention on Saturday, hitting all 18 greens in regulation, pouring in 11 birdies and shooting 10-under 62. How good was Morikawa’s ball-striking? It was just the third time he hit all 18 greens in his career and he gained 6.472 strokes on the field in approach shots, the best Strokes Gained: Approach number of his career, the best in AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am history and the second best in the Shotlink era (dating to 2004).
After a subpar Ryder Cup for Team USA, Morikawa started the season with a missed cut in Hawaii and a lackluster T-54 last week in Phoenix. That made nine straight starts dating to late June without a top-10 finish. But his swing coach, Rick Sessinghaus, gave him the pep talk he needed on Friday night and Morikawa put on a stripe show on the weekend.
“He’s way more of a feel player than people realize. Everybody thinks he’s kind of a robot, and he is a robot so-to-speak,” Morikawa’s caddie Mark Urbanek said. “He just kind of got back to hitting shots and being a shot maker, and that’s what he does best.”
On a day when nine different golfers were within two strokes of the lead as the leaders headed to the back nine, Morikawa made four birdies and one bogey coming home, including birdies at three of the last four holes. But he made a bogey at 17 to drop back into a tie with Lee, who shot 65, at 20 under. Morikawa drove it in the fairway and had 235 yards to the green. Then he had to wait 20 minutes for Jacob Bridgeman to get a ruling, take a drop and wait for his ball to remain still in the wind long enough for him to putt out. Morikawa paced, stared at the beautiful backdrop that is Carmel Bay and sifted through potential baby names. “Not Bogey,” he later cracked.
Waiting behind the 18th green to congratulate his friend was Russell Henley, who had chipped in at the Arnold Palmer Invitational 11 months ago to edge Morikawa by a stroke. Henley was confident that Morikawa would get the job done. “He’s got a 4-iron. That’s his club,” Henley said.
Added Straka, who eagled the last to tie for second and played alongside Morikawa in the final *********: “He's one of the best iron players of our generation probably. He likes to cut it so it makes it even harder with that wind blowing 25, 30 off your left. Yeah, that is a pretty special shot to put it away there.”
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Collin Morikawa wins AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, ends winless streak
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He ended a 28-month winless spell with his seventh career Tour title, shooting a 5-under 67 at Pebble Beach Golf Links and finished with a 72-hole aggregate of 22-under 266.
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Morikawa surged into contention on Saturday, hitting all 18 greens in regulation, pouring in 11 birdies and shooting 10-under 62. How good was Morikawa’s ball-striking? It was just the third time he hit all 18 greens in his career and he gained 6.472 strokes on the field in approach shots, the best Strokes Gained: Approach number of his career, the best in AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am history and the second best in the Shotlink era (dating to 2004).
After a subpar Ryder Cup for Team USA, Morikawa started the season with a missed cut in Hawaii and a lackluster T-54 last week in Phoenix. That made nine straight starts dating to late June without a top-10 finish. But his swing coach, Rick Sessinghaus, gave him the pep talk he needed on Friday night and Morikawa put on a stripe show on the weekend.
“He’s way more of a feel player than people realize. Everybody thinks he’s kind of a robot, and he is a robot so-to-speak,” Morikawa’s caddie Mark Urbanek said. “He just kind of got back to hitting shots and being a shot maker, and that’s what he does best.”
On a day when nine different golfers were within two strokes of the lead as the leaders headed to the back nine, Morikawa made four birdies and one bogey coming home, including birdies at three of the last four holes. But he made a bogey at 17 to drop back into a tie with Lee, who shot 65, at 20 under. Morikawa drove it in the fairway and had 235 yards to the green. Then he had to wait 20 minutes for Jacob Bridgeman to get a ruling, take a drop and wait for his ball to remain still in the wind long enough for him to putt out. Morikawa paced, stared at the beautiful backdrop that is Carmel Bay and sifted through potential baby names. “Not Bogey,” he later cracked.
Waiting behind the 18th green to congratulate his friend was Russell Henley, who had chipped in at the Arnold Palmer Invitational 11 months ago to edge Morikawa by a stroke. Henley was confident that Morikawa would get the job done. “He’s got a 4-iron. That’s his club,” Henley said.
Added Straka, who eagled the last to tie for second and played alongside Morikawa in the final *********: “He's one of the best iron players of our generation probably. He likes to cut it so it makes it even harder with that wind blowing 25, 30 off your left. Yeah, that is a pretty special shot to put it away there.”
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Collin Morikawa wins AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, ends winless streak
Continue reading...