Reigning DP World Tour Championship and DP World Tour Rankings in partnership with Rolex champion Collin Morikawa is relishing the challenge of defending the Claret Jug ahead of this week’s 150th edition of The Open Championship.
The 25-year-old shot a bogey-free final round to clinch last year’s Championship on debut at Royal St George’s, which acted as a catalyst for his triumph on the DP World Tour Rankings – the first American to do so.
After handing the Claret Jug back earlier this week, Morikawa revealed that winning at the Home of Golf this week would surpass that maiden triumph last season.
“It sucked. It really did,” said Morikawa when asked how it felt to relinquish the trophy. “I woke up this morning and looked at it. The replica is beautiful, but it's not the same. It really isn't.
“It will never be. But I don't want to dwell on the past. I think I've talked about that early on in my career. I always look forward to what's next. Maybe hopefully just giving it back kind of frees me up and allows me just to focus on winning this week.”
“That’s obviously the goal [to get his hands on the trophy again]. Now that I know what it's like to have the Claret Jug for a year, there's nothing like it.
“It's a really special year. Even though you won that tournament a year ago, it's going to be in your history for the rest of your life. And it's pretty cool but I think trying to defend this week at The 150th at St Andrews would be even more special.”
With 10,000 DP World Tour Rankings points on offer, the tournament is set to shake up the season-long Rankings with players bidding to play their way into the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai – the fifth and final Rolex Series event of the season.
With so many points available at golf’s original and most international Championship, the leading players in the Rankings will have their eye on a strong performance to edge closer to securing the Harry Vardon Trophy.
American Will Zalatoris will be hoping to extend his advantage at the top with another impressive Major Championship outing. The 25-year-old has finished inside the top six at the Masters Tournament, U.S. Open and US PGA Championship this year, narrowly losing the latter in a play-off against Justin Thomas.
Second-placed Matt Fitzpatrick, a two-time winner of the DP World Tour Championship, has failed to finish inside the top 20 in his six previous outings at The Open, but the Englishman comes into the tournament with a renewed confidence and an ‘A’ game to match after winning a maiden Major at last month’s U.S. Open.
Two-time DP World Tour Championship winner and three-time DP World Tour Rankings champion Rory McIlroy is relishing the opportunity to play the Old Course again after the Northern Irishman missed out on his defence of the Claret Jug at the course in 2015.
“I've only played one Open here before, I got off to a great start and got caught out in wind not too dissimilar to what's out there today,” said McIlroy, who sits in third in the Rankings.
“I'm playing well. I'm in good form. My confidence in my game is as high as it's been in quite a while. I can't go in here thinking that this might be my time.
“I just have to go out and play a really good tournament. I've got to string four good rounds together, and hopefully at the end of the week, that's good enough to win.”
