CALIFORNIA GOLFERS
GOLDEN YEAR FOR CALIFORNIA GOLFERS
PHOTO: MICHAEL WEINSTEIN
Collin Morikawa
C
22
FALL 2021
California Golf + Travel
Xander Schauffele
PHOTO: MICHAEL WEINSTEIN
alifornia golfers have had a big 2021, particularly on the PGA Tour, as four of them have spent most of the season in the top 10 of the World Golf Rankings. Collin Morikawa of La Canada Flintridge is ranked No. 2 behind top-ranked Spaniard Jon Rahm, while Patrick Cantlay of Los Alamitos is No. 4, Xander Schauffele of La Jolla is No. 5 and Bryson DeChambeau of Clovis is No. 7. Here is a rundown of what these four Californians accomplished this year: The 26-year-old Morikawa, who graduated from Cal in 2019, finished in the top 10 eight times and in the top 25 in a total of 11 events, highlighted by his twostroke victory over Jordan Spieth in the 149th Open Championship at Royal St. George’s Golf Club in Kent, England. It was Morikawa’s second major victory, as he also won the 2020 PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco. In addition, Morikawa won the 2021 Workday Championship at The Concession and lost out in a playoff to Cantlay at The Memorial on his way to finishing 26th in the FedEx Cup standings. Morikawa also closed with a
63 in the Olympic Games at Kasumigaseki Country Club outside Tokyo and lost out to C.T. Pan of Taiwan in a seven-man playoff to determine the winner of the Bronze Medal. Morikawa posted a 3-0-1 record in the Ryder Cup, including a tie with Viktor Hovland of Norway in singles, which provided the United States with the half point that clinched the victory to regain the Cup for the United States. Patrick Cantlay, 29, who earned the 2009 Haskins Award after winning four times as a freshman at UCLA, capped a brilliant 202021 season by winning the final two events of the playoffs—the BMW Championship in a playoff over DeChambeau and the Tour Championship by one stroke over Rahm—to capture the FedEx Cup. Cantlay also won the 2020 Zozo Championship at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks and the 2021 Memorial in a playoff over Morikawa and was selected PGA Tour Player of the Year. He claimed four victories while finishing in the top 10 a total of seven times and
