Collin Morikawa Plays for Big Money on Sunday at Tour Championship

Cal graduate Collin Morikawa has little chance of getting the $10 million first prize that will go to the Tour Championship winner, but how he fares on Sunday’s final round could affect his paycheck in the FedEx Cup playoffs by more than a million dollars.

Morikawa shot an even-par 70 in Saturday’s third round at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta Georgia, leaving him at 6-under for the tournament, which is the final leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs.

He sits in a four-way tie for 16th place in this 30-golfer field, and is nine strokes behind the co-leaders, Tommy Fleetwood and Patrick Cantlay, who are at 16-under for the tournament. Those two have a two-shot lead over Russell Henley, who birdied the final hole and is at 14-under for the tournament.

Morikawa will have trouble making up that ground to capture his first PGA title since October 2023, but he still has monetary motivation to do well on Sunday.

If he remains in 16th place at the end, Morikawa would earn $460,000.  But he is just three strokes out of seventh place, and a seventh-place finish would give him a $1.4 million paycheck. Morikawa is four shots out of sixth, which would be worth $1.9 million. It would also be an achievement because Morikawa has not finished in the top six of an event since March.

Morikawa was 2-under through 10 holes on Saturday, but he bogeyed the 11th, 14th and 17th holes to spoil his round, although he recorded a birdie on the final hole to leave him at even-par for the day.

Meanwhile, Cantlay birdied four of the final five holes to finish with a round of 6-under 64, while Fleetwood had seven birdies but also had three bogeys and a double-bogey for a round of 3-under 67.

Keenan Bradley shot a 7-under-par 63 to move into fourth place at 13-under for the tournament, one shot behind Henley, who fired a 1-under 69 on Saturday.

Pretournament favorite Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world, is still in the hunt after firing a 4-under-par 66 on Saturday, leaving him at 12-under for the tournament, and four strokes off the lead heading into the final round.

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