Anyone who watched Collin Morikawa’s pristine ball-striking at Pebble Beach last week couldn’t have helped but be impressed. Even Scottie Scheffler himself would have marvelled at the crispness of his friend’s approach play, especially down the stretch.
Morikawa has been in the golfing doldrums over the past two years, before he ended his 28-month wait for a PGA Tour win at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, of course. Meanwhile, Scheffler has been the dominant force in world golf, with 20 PGA Tour wins to his name since February 2022, including four major championships.
Scheffler was impressed by Morikawa’s win at Pebble Beach, and rightly so. The crucial thing about the two-time major winner is that he has proven on numerous occasions in the past that he has the winning mentality required when playing under the most intense pressure.
It was only last week when Morikawa suggested that he truly believes he’s capable of challenging Scheffler, and 2026 might just be the year that he proves that.
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The seven-time PGA Tour winner really struggled for two years or so, after winning the Zozo Championship in October 2023. The mental fortitude he showed to come back and win on the Monterey Peninsula last week really was very impressive.
His sensational iron play was the cornerstone of his victory at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He gained just under 10 strokes on the field throughout the week at Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill with his scintillating approach play.
Now Morikawa is in a really strong position to push on and challenge Scottie Scheffler for all of the major honors in 2026. He definitely has the game, and his consistent ball-striking means that he should be well-positioned to push the current world number one all the way this season.
Collin Morikawa’s ball-striking makes him Scottie Scheffler’s biggest rival
Scheffler has been an absolute winning machine over the past couple of years. Since the start of the 2024 PGA Tour season, he has won 14 of the 42 events he has played, including three major championships.
During that time, he has finished inside the top-five 27 times in total, the top-10 36 times, and has won two Hero World Challenges as well as an Olympic gold medal.
Nobody has been able to get close to Scheffler since the start of the 2024 season. It seems like 2026 could be much the same, with a win and two top-four finishes to his name in three events so far this season.
However, Morikawa may well have something to say about that. His game is in great shape right now and crucially, his win last week would have given him the belief that he is on the right track.
The main reason why the 29-year-old Californian is now primed to be Scheffler’s closest challenger is his elite ball-striking with his irons. If he can find a way of making marginal gains on the greens, he will be a serious threat in the biggest and most prestigious tournaments in 2026 and beyond.
So, just how good has his approach play been since his first year on the PGA Tour back in 2019? Well, his numbers speak for themselves.
| Year | Scheffler strokes gained rank | Morikawa strokes gained rank | McIlroy strokes gained rank |
| 2025 | 1 | 3 | 68 |
| 2024 | 1 | 42 | 52 |
| 2022/2023 | 1 | 2 | 8 |
| 2021/2022 | 4 | 3 | 14 |
| 2020/2021 | 83 | 1 | 35 |
| 2019/2020 | 33 | 2 | 19 |
As you can see from those stats, and aside from the 2024 season when Morikawa’s golf in general fell off a cliff, the man from Los Angeles has been one of the PGA Tour’s premium ball-strikers.
Scheffler has obviously been in a league of his own when it comes to approach play since 2022, but he’s ranked way down in 51st position in that category in 2026. Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy‘s iron play has arguably been his biggest weak point over the past six years.
That means that he is more often than not reliant on a fantastic putting week in order to win golf tournaments. The same cannot be said for either Scheffler or Morikawa.
Morikawa’s approach play consistency the key to hunting down Scheffler
With Morikawa’s win at Pebble Beach, he will be full of confidence. It’s worth remembering that he lost strokes to the field in strokes gained putting at Pebble, and was ranked 44th out of 80 players for the week.
However, Morikawa has proven in the past that he is capable of getting hot with the putter. Who remembers his Open Championship victory in 2021? He couldn’t miss during the final round, and the sheer amount of key par saves he made won him the tournament.
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Tiger or Scottie…
Morikawa’s ball-striking, much like Scheffler’s, is so elite that it enables him to contend even when he’s putting to an average standard. Scheffler has actually won multiple tournaments while experiencing poor putting weeks.
McIlroy definitely displayed much-improved approach play at Pebble Beach last week. However, if he drops back to the standards he has displayed over the past six years with his irons, Morikawa may well be the man who pushes Scheffler the hardest on the PGA Tour in 2026.
Sure, McIlroy is capable of winning any given week. He is the best driver of the golf ball in the world and when his putter gets hot, he’s very hard to beat. However, purely from a consistency standpoint, my money is on Morikawa causing Scheffler more problems this season than McIlroy.
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