Open is a key.' Grade: AĬollin Morikawa (T14): Tossed away a top-10 finish with a bogey-par-bogey finish late, but he hit it so well all week. I'm obviously trying to win golf events but getting in that U.S. Sitting just outside the World Ranking, near my hometown where I group playing Torrey Pines. 'I'm playing Muirfield next week, but hopefully this week was enough to get me inside the U.S. 'There's only one goal ,' he said after shooting 65 on Sunday to get into the top five at Colonial. Absolutely flushing the golf ball right now and trying to play his way into the U.S. Seven top-20 finishes in his last eight starts, including two top fives. While we were busy making jokes about how good he is during Round 1 at majors, he's been on a tear. Grade: AĬharley Hoffman (T3): This is a Charley Hoffman appreciation paragraph. Still, he registers yet another top-five finish this year and remains the hottest golfer on the planet. Spieth opened his fourth round with three bogeys over his first foul holes and registered two more over his last four without a birdie on the back nine. He followed an incredible 63-66-66 start at Colonial with a 3-over 73 when it mattered the most. Jordan Spieth (2nd) : As referenced above, Spieth just didn't have it Sunday. Here are the rest of our grades for the 2021 Charles Schwab Challenge. Follow & listen to The First Cut on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Rick Gehman is joined by Kyle Porter and Greg DuCharme recap the 2021 Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club. Expectations for Kokrak are no longer as a top-10 machine on the tour but rather as somebody who can win at any time on any course against any player. He took down a potentially all-time great on a course that golfer had absolutely owned, and he raised the stakes for himself in the process. Though he did not exactly make a name for himself with a dramatic, world-class Sunday performance for the win, Kokrak did something so few have done at his age (36) that's worthy of celebration. If last fall's win at the CJ Cup was a glimpse of that, this was full validation. But like Jimmy Walker did in his late 30s a decade ago, Kokrak can start racking up wins and potentially even take down a major championship. Is he ever going to be a Spieth or Justin Thomas type of player? No, of course not. One media member compared it to LeBron James trying to down Stephen Curry in the 2016 NBA Finals.Īll that to say this should not take away from Kokrak's victory, which has now put him into the Ryder Cup mix and really elevated his reputation as a strong PGA Tour player. Just like last week's PGA Championship as far as Brooks Koepka was concerned, this Forth Worth, Texas, crowd was not rooting against a Kokrak win, but it certainly was not rooting in favor of it with its beloved son on the verge of a second win in his last five starts. Kokrak went out in a wavy 35 but then gained separation from Spieth with a 4-4-4-2 start to his second nine holes. Then they went out and did their best to bring everybody else back into it. Data Golf gave the field a 4% chance of winning and either Spieth or Kokrak a 96% chance.

They were five and four strokes ahead of the rest of the field, respectively, when they started their round. To call the game between Spieth and Kokrak a pillow fight is an affront to pillow fights. Kokrak's game was not impressive (we'll get to that), but he cobbled together an even-par 70 that got the job done for the second time this season (only Bryson DeChambeau and Stewart Cink can say the same in 2020-21). Jason Kokrak, who will be inside the OWGR top 25 on Monday, has done all of that over the last few years, but he's also done something that's much harder to accomplish: He has stood up to some of the best players in the world and won multiple times on a tour where winning once is astounding.įollowing his win last fall at the CJ Cup, Kokrak did it again at the Charles Schwab Challenge on Sunday in the final pairing with Jordan Spieth.

You can top-10 your way around various events, never threaten to win and elevate both your OWGR and your bank account. In the modern American game, it has become fairly easy to sneak your way into the top 25 or top 30 in the Official World Golf Rankings without ever snatching any big victories.

Schwab golf tournament