Weekly Fantasy Golf Recap: Collin Card

This article is part of our Weekly Fantasy Golf Recap series.

When you've waited 28 months for a win, what's 20 more minutes?

Collin Morikawa had to stand in the fairway on No. 18 at Pebble Beach seemingly for an eternity on Sunday, as Jacob Bridgeman playing ahead of him completely botched the hole, first hitting it onto the beach and then into the water.

After Bridgeman finally made his way off the par-5 18th green -- with a miracle 6, not that you asked -- Morikawa methodically completed the hole with a kick-in birdie.

That allowed him to finish one clear of both Min Woo Lee and Sepp Straka to capture the first Signature Event of the season, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and end a long winless drought.

Specifically, it was 847 days and 45 starts since the 2023 ZOZO. (We didn't do the math, the PGA Tour did.)

What does one do when standing smack in the middle of one of the prettiest places on Earth with nothing to do but wait to hit a 4-iron from 235 yards?

"I tried to think about anything else other than golf," Morikawa said at his victory news conference. "Thankfully, you had the nicest backdrop you could ask for so that was very, very easy. For me, it was how do I stay loose, how do I stay warm and not just think about the shot.

"I knew what shot I had to execute. The wind was going to be howling. Selfishly I was kind of hoping Jacob would have finished a lot earlier because the wind was a little bit down. For me, it was just a perfect number for me. I didn't really have to do anything but just tried to keep pacing back and forth, look at the ocean."

Morikawa hit that 4-iron into the right rough, though in a good lie, 26 feet from the cup. He putted it to 16 inches, and that was that.

It completed a wild and windy day of golf in which a half-dozen players, including, yes, Scottie Scheffler, had a chance to win.

Morikawa was especially emotional after the win, perhaps because he had struggled so much the past two years, perhaps because of the news he shared after embracing his wife Kat – they are expecting their first child.

"Yeah, it's kind of surreal to say this was the week we started telling a lot of players," said Morikawa, who disclosed the baby is due in May. "She was finally out here, everyone kind of saw her, and you can hide it within the jackets but we just felt like at the time with where we're at in the pregnancy, it felt very safe."

Morikawa also disclosed during the week that he had switched putters. For a guy who ranked third on Tour in SG: Approach last season and 156th in SG: Putting, that seemed like a good move.

It was a putter that belonged -- now past tense, apparently -- to Kurt Kitayama. Morikawa got a hold of it a couple of weeks ago, played around with it, liked it, took it and brought it to Pebble.

Specifically, it's the Spider Tour X in a switch from a blade to a mallet, which he has toyed with before to no luck.

Kitayama is not exactly a good putter (we're being kind), but whatever works.

For the week, Morikawa ranked 44th in the 80-man field in SG: Putting, which may not sound great but is good enough when you also rank first in Approach. He even ranked 43rd in the third round alone, when he shot a 62 – that's how good he was striping it.

So now what for the rest of the season?

"Hopefully a lot," Morikawa said. "I saw a lot of distance control this week that I haven't had in a long time. We'll see. I think I'm going to have to sit back and reflect on today and enjoy today. I know my mind, I'm going to be pushing a lot. I think this just eases the rest of the season.

"I mean, the first couple years when I won early in the season, you just -- man, you free up, you know. And there's going to be that sense of freedom. It's hard to get because sometimes you need to win. Hopefully a lot more freedom and a lot more enjoyment for the golf this year."

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Min Woo Lee
After Lee won his maiden PGA Tour title at the Texas Children's Open at the end of last March, he didn't do much. It's not unexpected to take a step back after such a life-altering moment. But Lee plummeted out of the top-50 in the world rankings. He didn't register another top-10 the rest of the season. And he didn't do much in his first two starts of 2026. But we all knew the talent was there, and it reappeared at Pebble Beach. Lee shot a 65 on Friday, then another on Sunday to climb the leaderboard and come up a shot shy of a playoff. Now 27, Lee has been around long enough to better manage the ups and downs of pro golf -- in other words, minimize the downs.

Sepp Straka
Straka did so many things well all week. His worst round was 68 (unfortunately that came on Sunday). He ranked top-25 in the field in every Strokes Gained stat. It was just not enough, as he tied for second with Lee. He is now back up to No. 12 in the OWGR, and he hasn't been out of the top 20 in more than a year. Straka possesses an all-around game with no severe weakness, and that's a perfect recipe to contend a lot of weeks on a lot of different types of courses.

Scottie Scheffler
How far behind does Scheffler have to be before being considered out of a golf tournament? We may never know. He shot 72 on Thursday. Not good. He began Sunday eight shots off the lead. Even worse. As was the case last week at Phoenix, he made an incredible charge and basically ran out of holes. Scheffler shot a 63, was tied for the lead at one point and wound up tied for fourth. This was his 18th straight top-10, breaking a tie he had with Bill Casper for the most in some 60 years (Casper had 17 in a row across 1964 and '65). Scheffler also had three eagles for the first time.

Tommy Fleetwood
In his 2026 PGA Tour debut, Fleetwood birdied four of his final six holes to elevate himself into a tie for fourth. No reason to expect anything but another banner year from the Englishman.

Sam Burns
It's been so long since Burns last won that the tournament doesn't even exist anymore. That was the 2023 Match Play Championship. He hasn't won a stroke-play event since the 2022 Charles Schwab. He had a real chance to win on Sunday, holding a share of the lead for part of the day. After shooting a 5-under front-nine, he played even on the back, with a bogey on 17. That was not nearly enough to get it done and he tied for sixth.

Akshay Bhatia
Bhatia had a big lead on Saturday and, while he still led after 54 holes, he had a very shaky finish that continued into Sunday. He played the back-nine on Saturday in 2-over, then the front-nine on Sunday in 1-over. While all the leaders shot in the 60s on Sunday, Bhatia shot 72. At the beginning of the week, a tie for sixth would've looked great. But not so much now.

Jacob Bridgeman
Bridgeman clearly is a good player. Tour Championship last year. A top-5 and two top-20s to start 2026. And then at Pebble Beach, Bridgeman was in the thick of things, even holding a solo lead at one point. But he had a very shaky three-bogey back-nine, including a near disaster on 18 in which he hit his approach on the par-5 onto the beach. He then hit his third shot off the rocks on a cliff and into the water. It was a miracle he shot only a 6. This might be the proverbial learning experience all young players seemingly need before breaking through.
  
Ryo Hisatsune
Still only 23, Hisatsune is clearly coming. He opened with a 62 on Thursday and wound up with his third straight top-10 on the season. His worst Strokes Gained ranking is 53rd in Approach, and that is a superbly balanced game.

Jake Knapp
Knapp has now finished top-11 in all four of his 2026 starts, thanks to his second straight tie for eighth. Ranking top-20 on Tour in both SG: Tee-to-Green and Putting is a pretty good recipe for success.

Rory McIlroy
It was an uneventful 2026 Tour debut of McIlroy -- until Sunday. The defending champion closed with a 64, second best round of the day behind only Scheffler (natch) to climb into a tie for 14th. Notably, McIlroy ranked fourth in the field in SG: Approach but also 48th in Putting.

Xander Schauffele
Schauffele didn't have a good Sunday, when a top-10 or more was well within his grasp. But at least he was far better than in his first two starts of 2026. He shot a 70 on Sunday to fall eight spots into a tie for 19th. But after an MC at the Farmers and a T41 at Phoenix, this was a far better week.
 
Jordan Spieth
Spieth tied for 29th. It's been a middling T24-MC-T29 start to the season for Spieth.

J.J. Spaun
Spaun is still ranked top-10 in the OWGR, but he's not playing like it. His season has started T40-MC-T45. He's never been a great putter. But now he's ranked 163rd, and that ain't good.

Billy Horschel
Horschel tied for 48th. He has made five starts already in 2026 and does not have a top-25. He's missed two cuts. After missing much of last season following hip surgery, Horschel seemingly showed he was fine with a T11 at Utah during the fall. But this start has been underwhelming, to say the least. One bit of good news: He just got a sponsor invite into next month's Arnold Palmer Invitational Signature Event.

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