Morikawa has one eye on the European No. 1 prize

October 7th, 2020 / Bernie McGuire

American Collin Morikawa could create an historic European Tour first later this year should he capture the Race To Dubai (R2D) No. 1 title.

The 23-year-old is currently lying second on the R2D ranking and just a slender 28 points behind fellow countryman Patrick Reed.

Collin Morikawa Collin Morikawa (Credit: PGA Tour)

However, Reed has the opportunity to extend his lead having chosen to cross ‘The Pond’ to tee-it-up in this week’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

The brilliant 2020 PGA Championship winning Morikawa became an affiliate member in finishing just inside the top-50 earlier this year at the WGC – Mexico Championship.

“The DP World could possibly be added to my schedule but I haven’t decided yet. It was definitely something that before this quarantine stuff happened that’s why I signed up for the European Tour membership,” he said ahead of this week’s Shriners Hospital Open.

“This was appealing to me. I was going to be in the WBCs, in the majors. I want to go over there and play and see what it’s like to go over there and play against other players that I’ve seen.”

“That’s the reason why I signed up for the membership, is to try and win it. I wouldn’t just sign up just to sign up. I’ve got the Masters ahead of me. Obviously Patrick is playing this week but that’s all out of my hands. If I play well at the Masters, then we can make a good run for it and we’ll be out there in Dubai.”

And if Morikawa were to win later this year on the Earth course at Jumeirah Estates he would more than likely be the first to do so without having set a foot on the European continent.

“I don’t know if I would get a lot of the hate or what,” he said smiling.

“Everyone goes through it for being an affiliate member. That’s just part of being a part of the affiliate membership I have the first year of playing is that you don’t necessarily have to go over and play. You can use the WGCs and the other events to kind of — the majors — to add up your points.”

“I just happened to win the first major that was really a huge point pool that kind of jump started me up there. I’m very fortunate to be in that position.”