Collin Morikawa Wins the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am With a Birdie at the Last to End a 28-Month Drought

Collin Morikawa stood in the 18th fairway at Pebble Beach for roughly 20 minutes, tied for the lead, with a cold wind off the Pacific and nothing to do but wait. Then Morikawa pulled a 4-iron, aimed it out over the ocean and let the wind bring it home.

That shot, and the birdie that followed, won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Morikawa closed with a 5-under 67 to finish at 22-under 266, one shot clear of Sepp Straka (68) and Min Woo Lee (65). Scottie Scheffler (63) and Tommy Fleetwood (66) tied for fourth at 20 under, and 54-hole leader Akshay Bhatia faded to a 72 and a tie for sixth with Sam Burns at 19 under.

It is Morikawa's seventh PGA TOUR title and the first since the 2023 ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP in Japan, a gap of 28 months and 45 starts. The win is worth $3.6 million and 700 FedExCup points, and per the AP it moves the two-time major champion to No. 5 in the world.

A Leaderboard in Constant Motion

Sunday's final round was moved up an hour because of the forecast, and it played windy and chilly all afternoon. Bhatia, who started two clear, never found Saturday's early gear. Per the AP, Bhatia lost the lead within the first four holes and made only two birdies over the final 29 holes of the tournament.

Six players held at least a share of the lead at some point, according to the AP, including Jacob Bridgeman and Burns, who both spent time on top before the back nine sorted things out.

Morikawa's front nine was steady rather than spectacular. Birdies at the second, sixth and seventh offset a bogey at the par-3 fifth, and a birdie at the 11th kept the pressure on.

Scheffler's Three-Eagle Sunday

Scheffler started the final round eight shots back and turned Pebble Beach into a personal highlight reel. Scheffler was 7 under through seven holes, made eagles at the second, sixth and 18th, and finished with six birdies, three eagles and three bogeys for a 63. The last eagle, a 6-iron to about 30 inches at the 18th, posted 20 under and briefly pulled Scheffler level with Morikawa.

The one that got away was the 15th, where a wedge to a back pin hopped over the green and Scheffler missed a 6-foot par putt. In the end, the world No. 1 settled for a tie for fourth, which still extends that streak of top-10 finishes to 18.

"I had to do something special to give myself a chance," Scheffler said.

Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen

Morikawa answered at the 15th, rolling in a 30-foot birdie putt to take the lead, then stuck a 6-iron to 8 feet at the 16th and converted again.

Then came the wobble. At the par-3 17th, Morikawa's tee shot drifted dangerously close to the ocean left of the green, and the bogey dropped Morikawa back to 21 under and into a tie at the top, with Lee and Straka finishing at that same number.

Twenty Minutes on the 18th

So it all came down to the par-5 18th. Morikawa needed birdie to win outright, and the green was jammed. In the group ahead, Bridgeman's second shot went onto the beach, an attempt to play it from there ended in the ocean, and the cleanup took a while. Per the PGA TOUR, Morikawa spent 29 minutes between reaching the 18th tee and hitting the second shot, about 20 of them standing in the fairway.

"I tried to think about anything else other than golf," Morikawa said, describing walks to the edge of the cliff to look at the water and keep warm.

When the green finally cleared, Morikawa hit a 4-iron from 235 yards that started over the seawall and rode the wind back to the edge of the green. From the collar, Morikawa rolled the putt to about a foot and a half and tapped in for the win. "I was able to pull off a great 4-iron," Morikawa said. "And man, I need a drink."

The Chasers and the Context

Lee made the late run that nearly forced a playoff, playing the last six holes in 4 under and finishing birdie-birdie for the 65. Straka matched Morikawa with a tournament-high 27 birdies for the week, per the PGA TOUR, but came up one short. Bridgeman's 70 still earned a share of eighth at 18 under with Jake Knapp, Ryo Hisatsune, Nico Echavarria, Hideki Matsuyama and Shane Lowry. Defending champion Rory McIlroy closed with a bogey-free 64 to tie for 14th at 17 under.

Morikawa's week was a story of a slow build. A 69 at Spyglass and a 68 at Pebble left Morikawa eight back at the halfway point. Then came Saturday's 62 with all 18 greens hit, and Sunday's 67 in the wind. Per ESPN, 266 ties the lowest 72-hole winning total in the event's history, matching Brandt Snedeker in 2015.

There was a gear story too. The PGA TOUR reported that Morikawa won with a Spider Tour X putter that belongs to Kurt Kitayama, borrowed out of the bag of Kitayama's brother during a casual round in Las Vegas and never returned. Over four rounds the putter was roughly break-even, but on Sunday it gained 1.6 strokes, and Morikawa summed up the ownership question simply: "But it's mine now."

What It Means

This one carried weight. Morikawa turned pro the week before the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, and the drought since 2023 had started to color how people talked about one of the purest ball-strikers of the era. On the 18th green afterward, Morikawa and wife Kat also announced that they are expecting their first child this spring.

The first Signature Event of the year ended with a two-time major winner holding off the world No. 1 with one great swing in the wind. The long wait is over.

Revisit Round 1, Round 2 and Round 3. Final results are on the official PGA TOUR leaderboard (opens in a new tab), and the TOUR's final-round recap (opens in a new tab) has more.

Sources: PGA TOUR (final-round recap, Signature Scroll, points and payouts, leaderboard), AP, ESPN, Field Level Media, Golf Channel. More golf coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: PGA TOUR.