Final-round struggles continue to haunt former Sunday killer Collin Morikawa 

Remember, Morikawa was the first player in PGA Tour history to win his debut at two major championships. He won the 2020 PGA Championship thanks to a final-round 64 and the 2021 Open Championship with a final-round 66. With five wins and two majors in his first 57 PGA Tour starts, Morikawa was regarded as one of the premier closers in golf. That narrative has completely flipped in recent years, though.

Since the historic start to his career, Morikawa has lost his killer mentality and clutch gene. The 28-year-old has recorded 20 top-fives and eight runner-up finishes since the start of the 2022 season, but he has only one win in that span. He hasn't won on American soil since the 2021 WGC-Workday Championship. 

What's concerning about this trend is it seems to be all mental for Morikawa. When the pressure ramps up, he simply hasn't performed. Morikawa ranked third on the PGA Tour last season in adjusted scoring average (69.79), but he ranked 124th in final-round scoring average (70.42).

This weekend wasn't his first instance of a blown lead on Sunday, either. Morikawa blew a five-shot lead at the 2021 Hero World Challenge with a final-round 76. More recently, he coughed up a six-shot lead at the 2023 Sentry with a final-round 72, the worst score in the field that day.

Unfortunately for Morikawa, blowing a three-shot lead on the back 9 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational is just another example of his inability to close golf tournaments. The Sunday killer we used to watch is long gone, and regaining that confidence gets tougher and tougher with each final-round heartbreak.