Despite an Uneven Round, Collin Morikawa Just Two Strokes Back at the PGA

Collin Morikawa’s up-and-down opening round at the 108th PGA Championship played out in much the same way as his 2026 season.

The 29-year-old Cal grad mixed five birdies with four bogeys and shot a one-under 69 on Thursday at the Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, PA.

Low scores were hard to come by and Morikawa is just two strokes off the lead, in a 19-way tie for 15th place. Among seven players who share the lead at minus-3, only world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is ranked among the top-30.

Morikawa birdied the 17th hole to join a logjam that has 33 players within two strokes at the top of the leaderboard.

Morikawa ended a more than two-year victory drought with a win at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am this season and has five top-10 finishes. That has elevated Morikawa to No. 5 in the world rankings, even as he has battled back issues in recent weeks.

A two-time major winner, Morikawa made his professional breakthrough with a victory at the 2020 PGA Championship on the Harding Park course in San Francisco. A year later he won the (British) Open Championship at Royal St. George’s in Sandwich, England.

Morikawa’s back spasms forced him to withdraw from the Players Championship in March and he sat out the following week to let the situation calm down.

He said earlier this week that he feels much better now, at least physically.

“I think the mental game -- we always talk about it in golf, that the mental game is a big aspect of it, and it truly is,” said Morikawa, who overcame the back issues to finish in a tie for seventh place at the Masters last month and a tie for fourth a week later at the RBC Heritage.

“You're able to push yourself that much farther. Trust me, it was very, very uncomfortable to play the Masters and very uncomfortable to play the week after at Hilton Head, but you just have to keep pushing.”

The day was more challenging for two other Cal alums in the field, who reside deep on the leaderboard entering Friday’s second round.

Michael Kim, the world’s 45th-ranked player, stumbled early with a double-bogey 6 on the third hole. He recouped those two strokes with birdies on Nos. 6 and 11, but disaster awaited.

The 32-year-old had three consecutive bogeys on the 14th, 15th and 16th holes and wound up at 3-over 73 and tied for 98th place.

Max Homa, once a top-10 player but now ranked No. 123, carded four bogeys and just one birdie through 10 holes. He settled down and made par on Nos. 11 through 16 before a double-bogey 5 on the 17th hole that left him with a first-round score of 5-over 75 and a share of 124th place.

Homa, who hasn’t won on the tour since 2023, is playing his seventh PGA Championship, with just one previous finish better than 35th place.

While Scheffler posted a 3-under 67, a couple of the game’s other big names struggled Thursday. Reigning Masters champion Rory McIlroy shot a 4-over 74 and Bryson DeChambeau carded a 76 that included four bogeys on the back nine.

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