At the PGA Tour’s RBC Heritage tournament on Friday, Masters candidate Collin Morikawa recorded a bogey-free five-under second round of 66 to tie the lead in a four-way playoff.
However, Scottie Scheffler, the winner of the Masters, scored 65 to get within three shots of the lead, setting up an exciting weekend showdown.
Morikawa, the two-time major champion, is tied for first place with J.T. Poston (who shot 68), Austrian Sepp Straka, and Tom Hoge at 11 under.
Morikawa started the round with a birdie on the par-5 fourth hole, where he made an easy putt with a fantastic chip from the sand. On the ninth hole, he made his second birdie with a flawless approach shot.
The Californian made a ten-footer for birdie on the eleventh hole and a 36-foot birdie putt from the fringe on the next, even though he wasn’t playing at his best.
He shared the lead after making another birdie on the par-4 16th, and Morikawa expressed satisfaction with his clean scorecard.
“I hit it poorly, but the misses weren’t as bad, and the misses don’t put me in spots that cause me a lot of strokes. That’s what it’s about is kind of minimizing those mistakes,” he said.
Morikawa, the 2020 British Open and PGA Championship winner, trailed eventual Masters winner Scottie Scheffler by just one shot entering Sunday’s final round at Augusta after having a difficult start to the season.
Despite shooting a two-over 74 to finish tied for third, he believed that last Monday at the range he had found his game again.
“It’s not like we created something new in the golf swing. It just all made sense. We tried to make a lot of things make sense for the past while, but sometimes things click, and it’s obviously clicked because it’s lasted more than a day,” he said.
runner-up in the Masters Ludvig Aberg’s second round score of 66, which was also bogey free, put him within striking distance of the lead.
The 24-year-old Swede quickly rose to the seventh rank in the world despite having only begun his professional career in June of last year.
His sole birdie before the turn came on the par-four third, but he finished strong with four more in his final six holes, including the 17th and 18th.
“I feel like it tested my patience a little bit more than it did yesterday. Obviously I came out a little bit hotter yesterday than I did today. But we didn’t try to force anything. We stayed very disciplined and ended up finishing birdie-birdie, which was kind of a bonus on those two holes, but obviously very pleased with the way we’ve been playing,” he said.
But concerningly for the leaders, world number one Scheffler is only three strokes behind the lead going into the weekend in a very competitive leaderboard.
Scheffler was happy to have placed himself in contention after shooting a 65 to match his opening round 69.
“It was a good day. I felt like I could have shot a lot lower. Felt like I had some putts that were going up and at least had a chance of going in and didn’t. But other than that, yeah, played really good golf. Proud of today’s effort,” he said.
World number two Rory McIlroy was a stroke behind Scheffler after his 68.
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