Collin Morikawa Misses the Cut at The Open Championship

Friday was not a good day for Cal alumni as all four former Golden Bears golfers who entered The Open Championship failed to make the cut.

That includes Collin Morikawa, who was seeking his third major title and his first title of any kind since October 2023.  He won The Open Championship in 2021, but he has not done well in the United Kingdom since then.  He missed the cut at The Open in both 2022 and 2023 and tied for 16th last year.

And he missed the cut for the third time in four years this time, falling well short of qualifying for Saturday’s third round after carding a 3-over-par 74 in the second round at the Royal Portrush Golf Club in Portrush, Northern Ireland.  That left him at 7-over for the tournament, which was a long way from making the cut, projected to be 1-over but could wind up being 2-over.

After two rounds, Morikawa was tied for 130th place in a field of 156 golfers.

The top 70 golfers and ties after two rounds advanced to Saturday’ third round.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler holds the lead heading into the third round after shooting a 7-under-par 64 on Friday.  He is 10-under for the tournament, giving him a one-shot lead over Matt Fitzpatrick of England.

The other three ex-Cal golfers fared no better than Morikawa.

Michael Kim had bogeys on three of his final five holes on Friday, giving him a second-round score of 1-over-par 72 and leaving him at 4-over for the tournament, a couple shots shy from the cut.

Byeong Hun An, who spent one year at Cal before turning pro, had an even-par round of 71 on Friday, but his two-round score of 5 over par put him well below the cut line.

The fourth Cal representative in Northern Ireland this week was Sampson Zhang, who earned a spot in The Open by finishing as the runnerup at the final qualifying event in Liverpool, England, earlier this month. But his dream ended on Friday. He was still on the course when this story was posted, but he was at -over for the tournament after 13 holes on Friday, leaving him no chance to make the cut.

Morikawa, who is ranked No. 6 in the world, was the one with high hopes with new caddie Billy Foster, who carried the bag for Morikawa at both the Scottish Open and The Open Championships. That pairing did not produce favorable results, though, as Morikawa missed the cut in both events.

Foster was scheduled to work with Morikawa for just those two events in the UK, so presumably Morikawa will have his fifth different caddy since April at his next event.

On Friday Morikawa had three birdies, but he also had four bogeys and a double bogey to ruin his round.

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