Morikawa Morikawa’s stunning finish evokes memories of Woods

It has become a tradition in golf that whenever a first-time major winner is crowned there is a stampede to issue general assurances that no, this champion will not be a one-hit wonder. It is a generous but generally misplaced leap of faith, as the statistics highlight.

There have been 224 winners of the majors in their 160-year existence and 142 are single-time winners — almost two-thirds. So those grand pronouncements should not be made under any circumstance.

So here goes: barring illness or injury there is no way on God's Earth that Collin Morikawa will not win another major. In fact, he will win at least three.

This is not merely an emotive  response based on Sunday's extraordinary events at Harding Park, San Francisco, where the Californian played one of the most decisive US PGA Championship shots ever. This is based on history.

Since 1960 — widely regarded as the beginning of the modern major era — only two players have won majors before they were 25 and not collected another. One was Jerry Pate, the other Justin Thomas.

The latter is still only 27, is world No 2, has 13 PGA Tour titles to his name and is so nailed-on to become a multiple-major winner that he should be sponsored by Screwfix.

Pate was 22 when he won the 1976 US Open, and even then he would surely have won another but for a succession of shoulder injuries.

When it comes to Morikawa's likely career path it makes sense to analyse those other golfers who, since World War 2, won their first major before the age of 24: Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Severiano Ballesteros, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth.

The first two in that list do not warrant comparison, except with each other. Yet it should be noted that Morikawa's rise to major-winner status was even quicker than the other three.

Granted Ballesteros, McIlroy and Spieth were all under 22 when they joined the club and Morikawa is 23, but they had been professional for longer. It is stunning to think that Morikawa has been in the paid ranks for only 14 months.

This was only his second major event and 27th professional start.

Everywhere one peers on Morikawa's pristine CV are startling facts. For instance, his Saturday and Sunday scores were 65 and 64 and nobody has ever shot fewer in the final two rounds of a men's major. Morikawa is now up to world No 5. He has the game and attitude that scream longevity, and Tour stalwarts insist they knew it from the start.

England's Paul Casey said: “There's always kind of a new wave, and Collin didn't necessarily get the most publicity out of the group he was in, but you know, I consider myself veteran; I've been around the block, so I know when somebody is that good, and Collin was that good.

“We, the veterans, could just tell — he's the one. Even if the media weren't talking about him, that's where we were focusing our attention. He's really stamped his authority.”

Casey has the bruises as evidence.

The 43-year-old had just birdied the 16th to tie with Morikawa, and was dreaming of his own major duck being broken and England's first Wanamaker Trophy winner in 101 years, when this studious young man stepped up to that drivable par four and conjured one of the strikes of the ages.

It was a 294-yard execution of consummate control hit on to the ideal spot before the green, coming to rest within seven feet of the pin. The eagle took him two clear.

Yet the most amazing aspect was that he was only two ahead and there were two treacherous holes remaining. But everyone already knew; Morikawa had, in the minds of Casey and most other observers, already completed the glory. That is the extent of the clinical confidence he exudes.

“I feel very comfortable in this spot,” Morikawa said.

“When I woke up this morning I was like, 'This is meant to be, this is where I want to be, and I'm not scared from it'.

“The majors are going to be circled in, just like everyone else, but I've got to focus on every single week. There's a very different sense of comfort now.” — The Daily Telegraph