Chris Keane/USGA and Michael Madrid USA TODAY Sports
Byeong Hun (T16th) and Collin Morikawa (T35th) had their best finishes ever in a major at the 2019 U.S. Open.
MGOLF6/16/2019 10:05 PM | By: Cal Athletics
An And Morikawa Finish Strong At U.S. Open
Both Former Cal Golfers Record Top Finishes Ever In A Major With An Tied For 16th And Morikawa Tied For 35th
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – It was a good day to be a Bear on Sunday at the U.S. Open with former Cal men's golfers Byeong Hun An and
Collin Morikawa both recording their best finishes ever in a major. An finished in a tie for 16th playing in his ninth major and topped his previous best finish in a major of tied for 23rd at the 2016 U.S. Open. Morikawa tied for 35th in his first major and second tournament as a professional after wrapping up his collegiate career last as the only four-time All-American and three-time first-team All-American in Cal history last month.
An (70-72-68-71 – 281, -3) shot an even-par round on Sunday with three birdies and three bogeys. His front-nine one-under par 34 started with a bogey on the par-four second hole followed by birdies on the par-four fourth and par-five sixth, a bogey on the par-three seventh and a birdie on the par-four ninth. An reached two-under par for the only time in the round and five-under par for the tournament with a birdie on the par-four 11th but dropped back to even for the day and three-under for the championship with bogeys on the par-three 12th and 17th.
Morikawa had the best back nine of anybody in the field Sunday with a five-under par 31 that was one shot better than the second-best back nine of four-under 32 by Tiger Woods and also equaled several front nines of four-under par 31. After shooting three-over par on the front nine, Morikawa started his back nine with four consecutive birdies including a 12-foot chip-in from the bunker on the par-three 12th. After a bogey on the par-four 16th, Morikawa also birdied the final two holes to give him six on the back nine by making birdie putts of 24 and 14 feet.
"I started giving myself chances on 10, and that's when they started going in," Morikawa said of his back nine. "Overall, the week was okay, it wasn't great. So to kind of finish this off [with my back nine] and move on to next week is going to be a big boost. I'm going to be able to use this for the rest of the summer."
Both An and Morikawa noted the large number of Cal fans at Pebble Beach all week.
"The fans out here were awesome," Morikawa said. "I heard so many 'Go Bears' out there, probably more than I heard in my four years at Cal, which is crazy. There were a ton of people out here watching. It was so cool just to be inside the ropes playing and having a good time. That's what I'm here for."
"It's great to be back in the San Francisco area," An said. "I saw a lot of Berkeley alums out there cheering for me. It was great to see them because most of the people were yelling Tiger's name [when he played with Woods on Saturday], but I heard them yelling 'Go Bears' and I knew they were cheering for me. I was very delighted to see those people coming out to see me play."
