TWO-TIME MAJOR CHAMPION COLLIN MORIKAWA WILL TEAM WITH MAX HOMA, SECOND IN FEDEXCUP STANDINGS
NEW ORLEANS, LA (March 30, 2023)—Collin Morikawa, winner of two major titles and the DP World TourChampionship before he turned 25, will team with Max Homa, who has won twice this season and is ranked sixth in the world, to play the 2023 Zurich Classic, announced Steve Worthy, CEO of the Fore!Kids Foundation, producer of the tournament.
“Collin and Max both played here the last couple of years with different partners,” said Worthy. “They were teammates on last year’s Presidents Cup squad, and both have solid team experience, so we would expect big things from them,” Worthy added.
“Max is the fourth player ranked in the top ten in the world to commit to play the Zurich Classic this year, and we already have two more in the top 15,” said Worthy. “We look forward to continuing to announce commitments as they roll in,” Worthy added.
Both Morikawa and Homa played collegiately at University of California-Berkeley, which was one reason they chose to pair together at the Zurich Classic.
Morikawa burst on the PGA Tour by earning his temporary card in only his fourth start as a professional in 2019 when he tied for second at the 3M Open after leading at 54 holes. He went on to finish tied for fourth in his next tournament and won the Barracuda Championship two weeks later in his eighth career and sixth professional start at age 22 years, 5 months, 22 days.
He became only the second player to win a major and a WGC title before the age of 25. The other player to accomplish that feat was Tiger Woods.
He won the 2020 PGA Championship in August at Harding Park after the PGA Tour resumed play that year with a memorable eagle on the 16th hole in the final round. He then went on to win the World Golf Championships-Workday Championship in February 2021.
Later that season, he won The Open Championship at Royal St. George’s for his second major title in two years. In the 2020-21 season he posted two wins, a second, fourth in the U.S. Open, three ties for seventh, eighth in the PGA Championship and took fourth in the Olympics. He also won the DP World (European) Tour Championship that year.
Last season, he posted eight top 10 finishes with two seconds in 19 events. In a five-tournament stretch from October, 2021 to February, 2022, he had two seconds, two fifths and one seventh, then took fifth in the Masters. He also placed fifth in the U.S. Open and tied for fifth in the FedEx St. Jude Championship.
So far this season, he has posted a second in the Sentry Tournament of Champions to start the new year and a third in the Farmers Insurance Championship.
In 84 career PGA Tour starts, he has posted 29 top-ten finishes with five PGA Tour wins and six seconds.
In his first Ryder Cup competition in 2021, he went undefeated, with three wins in team play and a half in singles. He and Patrick Cantlay posted the second highest score totals for the American team at 3.5 points each.
In the 2022 Presidents Cup, as a captain’s pick, he posted a record of 2-1, winning his singles match and splitting his two team matches.
Morikawa was a three-time first team All-American at University of California where he was named 2018 Golfweek Men’s National Player of the Year and earned Pac-12 Player of the Year honors in 2019. He also reached the number one position in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
He was named to the 2017 Walker Cup team, the 2017 and 2018 Arnold Palmer Cup squads and won the 2018 Eisenhower Trophy.
Homa is enjoying a very successful season with two wins and eight top 10 finishes in only 12 events played this year.
He has won five titles in the last three seasons: two this year, two last season and one in 2020-21. He has won the Fortinet Championship in both this season and last.
He has a particular affinity for the Genesis Invitational in his home state of California, as he posted a second this year to go with a win in 2021, plus a fifth and a 10th in that tournament.
He was undefeated in the Presidents Cup last year, going 4-0, second only to Justin Thomas who won all five of his matches.
He and Thomas were teammates on the victorious 2013 Walker Cup team that also included 2022 U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick on the British-Irish team. Homa posted a 2-1 record in that event, just three months after he won the 2013 NCAA Division I individual championship.
Recently, Homa and Morikawa have been honored with two endowments by Cal Golf. The men’s team announced a Max and Lacey Homa and a Collin Morikawa Endowed Scholarship at the Golden Bear’s annual Cal Golf tournament.
The 2023 Zurich Classic field includes defending champions Patrick Cantlay, ranked fourth in the world, and Xander Schauffele, ranked seventh. They join last year’s runner-up team of Billy Horschel, ranked 24th and Sam Burns, who vaulted to 10th in the world after winning the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play Championship Sunday. In addition, 2022 U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick, ranked 15th in the world, will team with his brother Alex in the event.