Morikawa shines the door to win the FedEx Cup 2023

Round 1 of the Tour Championship on August 24, Morikawa scored seven birdies, an eagle and no bogey. This leg, he had six shots on the green, all within three meters of the hole, including one from 184 yards and 1.2 meters away, to score a par5 6th hole eagle. Closing the game at 61, Morikawa achieved the best round of his career on the PGA Tour and was one stroke behind Zach Johnson's record of 18 holes at the East Lake Tour Championship set by Zach Johnson in 2007.

From 2019, the Tour Championship is only open to the top 30 FedEx Cup tables to find the champion of the entire PGA Tour. According to the final tournament rules, the top of the FedEx Cup table entered the game with a score of -10, second place -8 and then a point gradually decreased to fifth place. After that, that reduction step will gradually return to even par, applied to the next six groups. The FedEx Cup results will combine the starting point and the actual battle at the Tour Championship, in which the first place player will take home $ 18 million.

Morikawa reached this year's grand final with a score of -1 while fellow American world number one Scottie Scheffler -10, Viktor Hovland -8, Rory McIlroy -7. But thanks to the first match with "ecstatic" performance, Morikawa jumped to T1 (-10) with Hovland and Keegan Bradley.

Previously, Bradley -3 due to belong to the 16-20 segment on the FedEx Cup table. Scheffler was right behind T1, with a -9 score due to a number of mistakes in the second half of the East Lake field, with the heaviest damage being a triple bogey on the par 15 hole, arising from a shot into the lake.

Morikawa is 26 years old this year, has won five titles on the PGA Tour, counting both majors - PGA Championship 2020 and The Open 2021.

Yesterday, McIlroy scored a bogey on the 18th hole. So, the defending FedEx Cup champion anchored and dropped to T7 (-7) with Jon Rahm and Matt Fitzpatrick. Rahm earned just one point, Fitzpatrick got -3.

Quoc Huy