As Scottie Scheffler Beats 15YO Odds & Tops Tiger Woods, Collin Morikawa Gives World No.1 a Massive Reality Check

Scottie Scheffler enters the 124th U.S. Open Championship with the lowest favorite odds of 4-1 in the last 15 years. The lowest before that was seen at the 2009 U.S. Open for Tiger Woods (7-4). With this, Scheffler surpasses the veterans of the golf of the game including Jack Nicklaus and Woods.

Over the past few tournaments, the 11-time PGA Tour winner has shown his capabilities and shut down any doubt thrown at his skills. Talking about Scheffler’s incredible run after taking his fifth victory at the Memorial Tournament, Collin Morikawa, the runner-up, had a few appreciative words for the winner and a truth bomb.

Collin Morikawa applauds Scottie Scheffler’s winning streak

In the 2024 season, the world no. 1 has won five times already, including the 88th Masters. His recent victory at the Muirfield Village Golf Club was against Collin Morikawa. Although Scheffler won the Memorial Tournament, Morikawa settled for a runner-up finish and the stroke gap between the two was only one stroke. On one hand, Scheffler struggled in the final round to score 2 over 74, but Morikawa was 1 under 71.

Seeing Scheffler capitalize on the final round, Morikawa appreciated Scheffler breaking the 15-year-old odds record, saying, “Scottie’s obviously proven himself this year and the past, let’s call it three, three and a half years of what he’s capable of doing.” However, the 6-time PGA Tour winner also explained at the post-match conference, “Majors are majors and you got to show up and you got to have the good bounces.”

Talking about the difficult sand dunes and bushes of Pinehurst No. 2, Morikawa believed that it would be more challenging even for Scheffler. Coming to his U.S. Open chances, Morikawa himself was not an easy opponent to beat, as World No. 1 complimented his game. Was the World No. 2 confident going into the U.S. Open after a runner-up finish? The answer would be no. At the post-match conference, Morikawa shared that if he played like the memorial week before every major, he would have been confident.

But in the end, the American pro was optimistic about the U.S. Open and said, “Hopefully, next week is one of my good ones.” The third major will be starting in just three days, how many good weeks Morikawa has had at it?

Collin Morikawa’s previous results at the U.S. Open

After turning pro in 2019, Collin Morikawa never missed a single edition of the U.S. Open Championship. However, in the past five years, the American pro won two majors but the U.S. Open silverware has always eluded his career. Notably, Morikawa has never won the U.S. Open but he has had three out of five finishes in the top 15s.

Going back to 2019, Morikawa’s first two plays at the U.S. Open were ordinary at best. In the debut year, he could only finish T35 after scoring 1 over 285 and in the year following it, Morikawa missed the cut after carding 76-71 in two rounds. However, Morikawa turned his game around in 2021. He scored his first top 5 finish, which was T4 on the leaderboard and to date, it is his best record of the 2-time major winner at the U.S. Open.

In the past two editions, that is 2022 and 2023, Morikawa closed out a good finish yet again. He was T5 in the 2022 U.S. Open and T14 in the latter. Though the 6-time PGA Tour winner has always struggled to lead the U.S. Open, this time things might change as Collin Morikawa will be entering Pinehurst No. 2 with great momentum.