Cal Golf: Collin Morikawa Moves Up on Day 2 at the 50th Players Championship
Two-time major winner Collin Morikawa was the only one of four former Cal golfers with a productive second-round performance at the 50th Players Championship on Friday.
Morikawa shot a 3-under 69 at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida climbing from a tie for 53rd place after the first round to a share of 27th entering the weekend.
At 4 under through 36 holes, he is 10 strokes back of leader Wyndham Clark, who carded a 7-under 5 for the second day in a row to sit atop the leader board at minus-14. Clark, who had eight birdies and one bogey on Friday, is four strokes up on the field.
Morikawa, 27, shot a 3-under 33 over his final nine holes.
Only one of the remaining three Cal players survived the cut. Max Homa, ranked eighth in the world, carded a triple-bogey 7 on the par-4 10th hole to post a 3-over 75 and barely advanced with a two-round score of minus-1. Homa, 33, is tied for 55th place, 13 strokes behind after a round that also included four birdies and four bogeys.
The news was much worse for Byeong Hun An and Michael Kim.
An, 32, who played one season at Cal, shot a 69 and was part of a 15-way tie for 22nd place after Thursday’s first round. On Friday, he ballooned up to an 80, which included three double-bogeys and a quadruple-bogey 7 on the par-3 17th hole. He shot 43 for the back nine and missed the cut with a two-day score of 5 over par that sent him to a tie for 120th place.
Kim, 30, shot a 4-under 68 on Friday and shared 13th place. A day later, e had a birdie-free round that was torpedoed by six bogeys and a double-bogey, creating his own round of 80. That put Kim at plus-4 for the tournament and tied for 114th place. As a result, he missed the cut for the fourth time in eight events this season.
Clark, who was ranked 116th in the world last year, has soared to No. 5 after winning the 2023 U.S. Open and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am earlier this year.
"More than anything, I'm just super excited that I kind of had a ho-hum front nine and then turned and really just got into a nice zone and felt really good on the greens and shot an awesome number," Clark said.
Xander Schaffele had a double-bogey but also an eagle on the way to a 3-under 69 that has him tied for second place with Nick Taylor at minus-10.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, dealing with neck pain on Friday, nonetheless had a 69 and is six strokes back at minus-8.
Cover photo of Collin Morikawa by Reinhold Matay, USA Today
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo