Collin Morikawa pledging funds, repping LA at relocated Genesis
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Collin Morikawa of the United States believes there is a need to create constant awareness regarding the Los Angeles wildfires.
PHOTO: AFP
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LOS ANGELES – Collin Morikawa is unfortunately familiar with wildfires devastating a place he knows and loves.
The American, a native of La Canada in Los Angeles (LA) county, has roots on the Hawaiian island of Maui, where his grandfather once owned a restaurant in the town of Lahaina.
When Lahaina was hit by massive wildfires in 2023, Morikawa decided he would donate US$1,000 (S$1,350) per birdie throughout the FedExCup play-offs that year.
He is bringing back that pledge at this week’s Genesis Invitational, which was moved to San Diego due to January’s fires in LA. He will give US$1,000 per birdie and US$2,000 per eagle to the California Community Foundation and the LA Fire Department Foundation.
“Just to kind of do a little bit of support and just create awareness,” Morikawa said on Feb 11.
“I think the most recent one for me that hit home was the Lahaina fires. Fires happen. People kind of forget and then you move on to the next cycle. But for how big of an impact Los Angeles has gone through with everything with the fires, you just have to keep creating awareness as much as you can.
“It’s amazing to help out in my little bit and, hopefully, we make a lot of birdies starting Thursday.”
Morikawa, 28, added that LA has changed drastically since he was young and will continue to change, but it is a place where a diverse group of people are currently helping one another and rallying together to rebuild.
“That’s what amazes me and that’s what makes me proud to be an Angeleno,” he said.
“You see that and you’re like, wow, that’s true community right there. When things like the fires happen, the community comes together, people want to help out and that’s what you want to see.”
In other golf news, Adam Scott says his meeting with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and United States President Donald Trump last week was “positive” for getting a PGA-LIV deal to reunite men’s golf stars.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), backers of LIV Golf, has been in talks with PGA Tour officials about an investment deal, but nothing has been finalised since a “framework agreement” was unveiled in June 2023.
“It’s just a positive thing that the President of the United States is such a lover of the game of golf and understands some of the challenges facing the professional game at the moment,” said Scott, a member of the board of directors of PGA Tour Enterprises, which PIF would invest in as part of the deal.
REUTERS, AFP
