Collin Morikawa birdies the 18th to win Pebble Beach and end more than 2-year drought

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Collin Morikawa had gone 28 months since his last win, and he was reminded Sunday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-am why it’s never easy.

He was among six players who had a share of the lead at one point in a wild and windy final round, one name getting everyone’s attention — Scottie Scheffler — who nearly pulled off the biggest comeback in the tournament’s history.

Tougher still was standing in the fairway on the par-5 18th, the cold Pacific air ripping off the ocean to his left, and having to wait some 20 minutes as Jacob Bridgeman had to figure out how to play off the beach only for his shot to go into the ocean.

He said he walked down to the ocean and back about 10 times.

“I tried to think about anything else other than golf,” Morikawa said. “Thankfully, you had the nicest backdrop you could ask for so that was very, very easy. For me, it was how do I stay loose, how do I stay warm and not just think about the shot.”

Morikawa delivered the goods when they mattered, back-to-back birdies to take the lead, and one last birdie with a 4-iron from 235 yards he had to start out over the ocean wall and let the wind bring it back to the green.

Two putts from the collar gave him a 5-under 67 and a one-shot victory over Sepp Straka and Min Woo Lee.

“Great field, great leaderboard — looking at it the entire day,” Morikawa said. “And just to be able to pull of those last two shots, it feels great.”