It was a dream start for Collin Morikawa at the Zozo Championship, jumping out to the first-round lead with a 64.
However, just 22 holes later, the 26-year-old, whose paternal great-grandparents emigrated from Japan to Hawaii, was back to even-par for the event and reeling.
The World No. 20 opened his third round with a double bogey at the 1st and then added a bogey at the 4th.
But then he went on a tear over his final 13 holes, making eight birdies against just one bogey to vault back up the leaderboard, into solo 4th at the Zozo Championship.
“Thursday was kind of an easy day, it was just point and shoot and ball went where we wanted,” Morikawa said after his round. “Today it was a little bit back and forth, a little bit of ‘tweeners of those clubs. And sometimes those days don’t work out, but we were able to figure out the right numbers, figure out the right shots, and that was a nice shot to finally hit where I wanted and just kind of get that, everything starting from there.”
Morikawa is one of the few big stars to tee it up this week in Japan. He mentioned earlier in the week how his Japanese heritage would make this win a little more special for him, especially because he has not won since his second major victory at the 2021 Open Championship.
However, he’s not letting the moment distract him.
“My focus tomorrow is just to give myself a chance. I had to do that today,” Morikawa said. “It’s not going to change anything out there. I’m going to be three, four, possibly five shots behind heading into tomorrow, so we’re going to see what happens.”
And while he is playing for a little more this week, as he starts the final round two shots behind leader Justin Suh, he’s also playing for a whole lot of money.
Here is the complete payout breakdown for the 2023 Zozo Championship. The total purse is $8.5 million.
2023 Zozo Championship payout info, winner’s share
1. $1.53 million
2. $918,000
3. $578,000
4. $408,000
5. $340,000
6. $306,000
7. $284,750
8. $263,500
9. $246,500
10. $229,500
11. $212,500
12. $195,500
13. $178,500
14. $161,500
15. $151,640
16. $142,460
17. $133,960
18. $125,460
19. $116,960
20. $108,460
21. $99,960
22. $93,160
23. $86,360
24. $79,560
25. $72,760
26. $65,960
27. $63,410
28. $60,860
29. $58,310
30. $55,760
31. $53,210
32. $50,660
33. $50,660
34. $45,985
35. $43,860
36. $41,735
37. $39,610
38. $37,910
39. $36,210
40. $34,510
41. $32,810
42. $31,110
43. $29,410
44. $27,710
45. $26,010
46. $24,310
47. $22,610
48. $21,250
49. $20,060
50. $9,380
51. $18,870
52. $18,360
53. $18,020
54. $17,680
55. $17,510
56. $17,340
57. $17,170
58. $17,000
59. $16,830
60. $16,660
61. $16,490
62. $16,320
63. $16,150
64. $15,980
65. $15,810
66. $15,640
67. $15,470
68. $15,300
69. $15,130
70. $14,960
71. $14,790
72. $14,620
73. $14,450
74. $14,280
75. $14,110
76. $14,110
77. $13,770
