Tokyo Olympics: Pro-golfer Colin Morikawa flies to Tokyo after winning the British Open

U.S. GOLF

Collin Morikawa will shoot for a medal  for the U.S. at the Tokyo Olympics.

Collin Morikawa is peaking at the right time. After winning the British Open Championship Sunday, he's flying to Tokyo where he will join Danielle Kang as Asian American members of the U.S. Olympic Golf Team.

Morikawa, 24, is just the eighth golfer to win two majors before his 25th birthday. He won his first major, the PGA Championship, last summer. He also became the first golfer to ever win two different major championships on his first attempt.

Morikawa, who lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, is a four-time PGA TOUR winner, including the 2020 PGA Championship in San Francisco and 2021 World Golf Championships-Workday Championship at The Concession. Morikawa has represented the U.S. as an amateur at the Arnold Palmer Cup (2017, 2018) and the Walker Cup (2017) but the upcoming Olympic Games will mark his first time representing the U.S. as a professional. Morikawa is a graduate of the University of California-Berkeley.

As of this writing, Morikawa is the fourth-ranked golfer in the world. The other U.S. men golfers competing in Tokyo — Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele and Bryson DeChambeau — are ranked third, fifth and sixth, respectively.

The women on Team USA are all ranked also: Nelly Korda (No. 1), Danielle Kang (No. 5), Lexi Thompson (No. 9) and Jessica Korda (No. 13).

Korean American Danielle Kang is on the U.S. Olympic Golf Team.

Kang, 28, is a five-time LPGA Tour winner, with her first victory coming in major fashion at the 2017 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. In 2020, she won back-to-back events when the LPGA Tour returned to play following its pandemic-related hiatus, and she led the Tour in scoring at 70.08. She represented the United States at the Solheim Cup in 2017 and 2019. Kang attended Pepperdine University and is a two-time U.S. Women’s Amateur champion (2010, 2011).

"Team USA will again have the largest contingent of players in the Olympic golf competition with eight of golf's stars giving the United States a strong chance at reaching the podium," said USA GOLF Executive Director Andy Levinson.

The men’s competition will take place from July 29-August 1 with the women following from August 4-7 at Kasumigaseki Country Club in Kasahata, Saitama, Japan.

“This may not have been a dream as a kid since golf was never in the Olympics," said Morikawa, "but it’s a dream come true now. Tokyo bound, let’s go Team USA.”

Danielle Kang celebrates her Women's PGA victory only AAPI will appreciate

INSTAGRAM

Danielle Kang celebrates her victory in her own unique way.

AFTER Danielle Kang, 24, won her first major golf tournament last Sunday she did what any first-time winner would do. She celebrated.

With the help from her best friend and fellow pro golfer Michelle Wie, they - ahem - "borrowed" the championship trophy prematurely and took it out on the town. 

RELEATED: Danielle Kang wins her first Women's PGA tourney

After everyone on her team drank beer from the vessel, she ate some pho from the cup. I'm pretty sure that's the first time that has happened with the trophy. Hopefully, the normally staid tourney officials were not too shocked.

The two young women stole the trophy and par-teed! Not exactly your submissive Asian female stereotype, eh?

We can only hope that this is not the last time either Kang or Wie win a championshp. 

###

Danielle Kang wins her first Women's PGA championship

Danielle Kang

BY WINNING her first Women’s PGA Championship, Danielle Kang finally lived up to the promise that was expected when as a amateur golf champion she decided to turn pro.

The San Francisco golfer birdied the 18th hole to win the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Olympia Fields Country Club outside of Chicago on Sunday.

After winning on the 18th hole, the 24-year old Kang teared up.

"If I could wish anything, I would wish that my dad saw me won,'' said Kang, wiping tears from her eyes. "I think that it's been a really difficult road for me the past four or five years. It's life, though, you pick yourself up and you have to keep working hard at it, and then believe in what you're doing, and not letting yourself down. Kang's father, who caddied for her at the beginning of her golf career, passed away of cancer in 2013.

Kang is probably most famous for playing in the 2007 U.S. Women's Open as a 14-year-old, but it's taken her a while to learn how to win as a professional. 

Her first WPGA win was her 31st major championship and just her first top 10. She's also played in nearly 200 events as a pro on the LPGA Tour before grabbing that first win.