It was probably little consolation for Collin Morikawa to know that he would have won The Tour Championship had everyone started on the same score, with the world number four ultimately finishing four shots adrift of Scottie Scheffler at East Lake.
Collin Morikawa may have mixed feelings about his 2024 season, with the 27-year-old failing to secure a single win across the year. However, he has managed to finish in the top 10 on eight occasions.
It has been a turbulent time for the American, who has won just once since the end of 2021. Of course, Morikawa had won two major titles within a couple of years of his debut on the PGA Tour. But he had seemingly really struggled to kick on across 2022 and 2023.
Despite not winning, there were plenty of positive signs across 2024 for the Olympian – and it seems that he is being tipped for an even better 2025.
Collin Morikawa’s improvement in 2024 lauded
Speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast, Ryan Lavner picked out Morikawa as his most improved player on the PGA Tour across the season, as he also shared what he has found particularly impressive about his consistency this year.
“My pick for this one was Collin Morikawa,” he said.
“Remember Rex, when you were dogging him, I think, was it the end of 2022 into 2023 when you said this is a player who’s going to fall outside the top 25 in the world rankings? You were very close, you were so close, he dropped to 23rd last summer when he was in the doldrums, he was going through some swing changes, he ditched his long-time coach Rick Sessinghaus, he got together with Mark Blackburn, swing coach to Max Homa among others. He won the Zozo Championship, but that sort of proved a little bit fleeting.
“He has always had a glaring weakness in his game, it has been his putting and his short game. You look at the major championships he won, they were essentially anomalies putting-wise. Both those two weeks, Collin Morikawa was the top putter in the field that week. When you pair that with the sublime ball-striking, he is going to beat a major championship field.
“He is all way up to fourth in the world ranking once again, despite not winning a tournament in 2024, incredibly hard to do. And I think, of most importance, he has made huge strides on and around the greens. Stephen Sweeney, his putting coach, Rick Sessinghaus is back with him, he’s made huge short game strides. Collin Morikawa is a more complete player now in 2024 than he was in his heyday in 2020, 2021. I think that is very encouraging, the signs pointing back up to Collin Morikawa being a consistent force in the major championships as he was in the first couple of years in his career.”
The statistics which highlight Morikawa’s improvement
The statistics definitely show that Morikawa has become extremely well-rounded, with the 2020 PGA champion fifth on tour for total strokes gained this season.
Off the tee, he is 15th, while he is 41st for approaches and 57th for putting. But there is one putting statistic where Morikawa is actually the best on the PGA Tour.
No-one on the PGA Tour averages fewer putts per round than Morikawa. Obviously, that may not come as a huge surprise given how good he is with his irons, and clearly his putts per round do not tell the full story given where he ranks for strokes gained with the flat stick.
As Lavner suggests, Morikawa’s iron game is so good that he does not need to be an elite putter in the field to compete with the best. But clearly, that part of his game is definitely trending in the right direction.
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