3 fun facts about 2020 PGA Championship winner Collin Morikawa

Collin Morikawa

Collin Morikawa captured his first major title Sunday at the PGA Championship.

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The first major of a beleaguered 2020 golf season is in the books, and we have a first-time major champion on the Wanamaker trophy. Collin Morikawa, one third of the highly-touted 2019 class, is your newest PGA champ.

Here’s what you need to know about him…

1. He’s part of golf’s stellar 2019 class

Morikawa was a highly-touted amateur who ascended to the top of the world amateur rankings while on the University of California golf team. When he turned pro last year, he was overshadowed slightly by two Oklahoma State prodigies — Viktor Hovland and Matt Wolff — but his talent is undeniable, and his record speaks for itself.

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2. His girlfriend is also a great golfer

It was in college where he met his girlfriend, Katherine Zhu, who is an impressively good golfer herself. She played four years on the University of Pepperdine golf team and was an all-American.

3. He’s an amazing ball-striker

Like, really amazing. He hits a fade on most of his shots, and how good is he? As our own Jonathan Wall reports, in college he went through an official Trackman protocol and found that his dispersion pattern with a 6-iron was better than most elite players’ pitching wedges.

Don’t be surprised if he writes his name into history as one of the best ball-strikers ever. Watch this space.

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Luke Kerr-Dineen

Golf.com Contributor

Luke Kerr-Dineen is the Game Improvement Editor at GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com. In his role he oversees the brand’s game improvement content spanning instruction, equipment, health and fitness, across all of GOLF’s multimedia platforms.

An alumni of the International Junior Golf Academy and the University of South Carolina–Beaufort golf team, where he helped them to No. 1 in the national NAIA rankings, Luke moved to New York in 2012 to pursue his Masters degree in Journalism from Columbia University. His work has also appeared in USA Today, Golf Digest, Newsweek and The Daily Beast.