Just two more weeks until daylight savings time, folks! Start the countdown, alert the neighbors, and get the golf clubs ready to go. It’s almost spring.

Autopilot

Are the World Golf Championships contrived events that dole out large amounts of money and FedEx Cup points to guys who shoot 15 over? Maybe. But a lot of these tournaments deliver solid drama.

This weekend’s WGC-Workday Championship at the Concession featured some world-class golf on a pretty difficult course, and a deserving champion separated himself at the end. After a second-round 64 vaulted him into contention, Collin Morikawa shot 67-69 on the weekend to win by three shots over Viktor Hovland, Brooks Koepka, and Billy Horschel. Results

In 41 PGA Tour starts, Collin Morikawa has claimed a major championship, a WGC title, and two other victories. For those keeping score at home… that’s really, really good. One of the best iron players since Tiger Woods, Morikawa has often struggled with his putter, so ahead of this year’s Genesis Invitational, on the advice of Mark O’Meara, he changed to the “saw” putting grip. While Morikawa putted horribly at Riviera, he bounced back at the Concession to finish in the top 10 in Strokes Gained: Putting.

Collin Morikawa is now No. 4 in the Official World Golf Ranking, so it’s hard to imagine him getting even better. But if he combines his elite ball-striking with better-than-average putting stats, he could do just that.

Nellyville

It was a star-studded leaderboard at the Gainbridge LPGA this weekend, but none shone brighter than Nelly Korda. The No. 4 player in the world made just one bogey over her final 36 holes and walked away with a three-shot victory. Results

Nelly Korda’s success isn’t exactly sneaking up on anyone, but it’s easy to forget that she’s just 22 years old. She already has four top 10s in majors to go with four LPGA Tour wins, and she’s been inside the top five of the Rolex Rankings since November 2019. Pursued by the likes of Jin Young Ko, Lexi Thompson, and Lydia Ko at Lake Nona, Korda played nearly flawless golf. With two top-three finishes to start the 2021 season, Nelly Korda may be embarking on the best season of her career.

“I call it Concussion”

How did the Concession Golf Club hold up in its PGA Tour debut? Aside from the obvious point that it would eat any amateur alive, it did well. The course played fairly firm and didn’t rely on rough to exact penalties. Water hazards and severely contoured greens provided much of the difficulty. While birdies and eagles were available, triple and quadruple bogeys were, too.

Billy Horschel, as usual, was quick to offer his opinion. “Too many times, and it’s not the Tour’s fault, we play courses where you don’t have to worry about your misses,” he said after the second round. “[At the Concession], if you miss it in the wrong spot you’ve got a tough two-putt or you’ve got a really tough up-and-down.”

We agree with a lot of that but have to wonder why Horschel exempts the PGA Tour from criticism. The Tour goes to a lot of unmemorable courses that create little to no stress for the best players. It would be strange to blame anyone else for this state of affairs.

But in his assessment of how the Concession resists scoring—difficult two-putts and up-and-downs resulting from prior inaccurate shots—Horschel is spot-on. No, most regular golfers would not enjoy themselves on this course. It was an excellent pro venue, though, and we wouldn’t mind seeing the PGA Tour make a return trip in the future.

Quick Hooks

Many players across the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour wore red polos on Sunday in support of Tiger Woods as he recovered from his car accident last week. Woods tweeted out a thank-you on Sunday night, noting how much the gesture meant to him. He has been moved to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he received follow-up procedures on Friday.

People got mad at Max Homa for saying he wouldn’t wear a red shirt on Sunday. Let’s rephrase that. People got mad at people who were supposedly mad at Max Homa for saying he wouldn’t wear a red shirt on Sunday. Honestly, we don’t know what happened. It all seemed really dumb.

Branden Grace shot a Sunday 66 to come from behind and win the Puerto Rico Open. It was Grace’s second career PGA Tour victory. Results

Kevin Sutherland birdied two of his final three holes to win the Cologuard Classic by two shots on the PGA Tour Champions. Results

While Morikawa lifted the trophy at the Concession, fellow young stars Viktor Hovland (T-2) and Scottie Scheffler (fifth) gave themselves a good shot. Hovland’s finish is all the more impressive considering he made a quadruple-bogey eight to finish his second round on Friday. If you haven’t already, watch the young Norwegian’s amazing chip from behind the 13th green on Sunday.

World No. 1 Jin Young Ko notched her fourth straight top five and her seventh top 10 in her past eight starts with her solo fourth at Lake Nona. She hasn’t missed a cut since the 2018 Women’s Open Championship.

Every winner on the LPGA Tour this season has had the last name Korda.  At the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions in January, Jessica outdueled her sister and Danielle Kang. The Kordas are the first pair of sisters to win back-to-back events on the LPGA Tour since Annika and Charlotta Sörenstam did it in 2000.

Aside from one bad round at the Genesis Invitational, Brooks Koepka has played some incredible golf lately. His T-2 at the WGC is his fourth top 10 of the 2019-20 season.

The Latest from The Fried Egg

Shotgun Start: An anthropomorphic box, Billy Ho and the catch basins, and tribute hole golf

The week begins with some laughter-induced tears as Andy and Brendan delight in their re-acquaintance with the walking, talking Cologuard box. They naturally begin their results review with the Senior Tour, discussing the water hazards in Tucson, Mike Weir’s wounded putts and HOF credentials, and Kevin Sutherland “hanging in on the backside.” Then they get to the brilliance of Collin Morikawa and how his golf almost made Sunday’s finish at the Concession boring. They discuss the venue’s volatility, its catch basin shotmaking challenge, and Billy Horschel’s ample commentary on the conditioning and commendation for the Tour setup crew. They discuss Brooksy’s run of J-Day health troubles. Also addressed are the many Tiger tributes and the discourse around those. Nelly Korda’s work at the Gainbridge is praised but not the tape-delayed broadcast. With the LPGA going to a third Orlando-area course, Andy stumbles into researching the tribute holes at next week’s venue and finds many factual errors. Listen on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify.

Pro Shop

We don’t have any red polos in the pro shop, but the navy Fried Egg Sport Polo is as good as they come. Get yours today!