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■ Secret to Morikawa WGC Championship
Average driver 285 yards lowest
Longest hit, 30 yards gap with US Homa
The green hit rate was tied for second place with 77%
Approach gained at 2.386 1st place
10 strokes ahead of four days with an iron
Aside from many long hitters
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At the World Golf Championship (WGC) Workday Championship, which ended a few weeks ago, Japanese-American Colin Morikawa won the championship with a space of 3 strokes ahead of second place.
Most of the world’s top players participated in this tournament with a winning prize of $1.82 million (about 2,500 million won), which is comparable to other major tournaments, and the FedEx Cup points are high.
World rankings No. 1 Dustin Johnson (USA), 2nd place Jon Lam (Spain), 3rd place Justin Thomas and 1st long-hit Bryson DeChambo, major hunter Brooks Kepka (above the United States), and Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland) participated. . Here, Morikawa, the third year of his debut, won the championship.
Morikawa, who won her 4th win in her career, climbed to the 4th highest ranking in the world after her debut with this championship. Morikawa drew even more attention by winning the’short hitter’, which is rare especially in the long hitter’s heyday. In this competition, Morikawa’s average driver distance was 285.6 yards, almost the last of all 72 participants. Compared to the average 316.4 yards of Max Houma (USA), who took the farthest driver shot, it is more than 30 yards apart.
The average driver distance for the entire PGA tour last year was 296.4 yards, the highest ever. In addition to the existing long hitters such as McIlroy, Johnson, and Kepka, Morikawa is more of a mutant at a time when there are many new generation long hitters who easily hit driver shots over 340 yards, such as DeChambo, Cameron Champ, and Matthew Wolf (above America).
There was a golfer who suddenly came to mind while watching Morikawa’s victory. It is none other than Luke Donald, who is from the UK and is ranked number one in the world. Unfortunately, the two are the same, 175 cm tall. It is a relatively dwarf physique on the PGA Tour, where large figures of great physique are gained.
Donald was also a single hitter as well as Morikawa. However, after overcoming the weaknesses of physical condition and short driver distance, it confidently rose to the top of the world in 2011.
Donald (284.1 yards) is the only golfer with an average driving distance of less than 290 yards among the world’s number one golfers in the last 10 years. Donald’s secret weapon is an accurate iron shot, short game, and excellent putting. At that time, his iron approach shot had a gain of 1.094, which was the first place in the tour, while the short game around the green was tied for 18th with 0.273, and the putting gain of 0.870 was the first place.
By making up for the weakness of the short driver distance, the average of 9 strokes per tournament was reduced by iron shots, short games, and putts than other golfers. Donald set a remarkable record without 3 putts in a row at the time of 483 holes, and even received a trophy that was changed to a season average of 68.86.
Morikawa’s iron shot skills are as good as Donald’s. In this competition, he hit 56 holes out of 72 holes, tied for second place with a green hit rate of 77.78%, and the iron approach shot gained at bats with a whopping 2.386. It means that the iron shot alone reduced the number of at-bats by close to 10 during the tournament than other players.
Morikawa’s short game and putting skills were somewhat insufficient compared to his iron shot skills, so he got caught in the decisive moment. However, as the grip is changed to a claw grip this season, putting skills are also improving. In 2016, Jordan Spies (USA) was the last to come to the so-called’power golf’ era. For this reason, it was the opinion of golf experts that it was difficult for the golfer of’Donald Ryu’ to make up for a short driver distance with an accurate approach shot and putt to be ranked first in the world rankings. However, with Morikawa’s’surprise appearance’, this prediction may need to be revised.
Professor, Graduate School of Golf Science and Industry, Kookmin University
Doctor of Sports Psychology