Collin Morikawa won the Zozo Championship in October 2023 with a 7-under 63 at Narashino Country Club. He finished six shots clear, and that was his sixth PGA Tour title. Then 847 days passed without another win. When the seventh came at Pebble Beach on February 15, 2026, it brought something the Zozo did not.

In a video posted by the PGA TOUR on X, he addressed his fans, then shifted to a different message entirely.

“But to my little one, you’re gonna listen to this in a lot of years. Just keep believing in yourself. You’re making me teary-eyed already thinking about it. But just know your mom and dad are always going to believe in you. We’re going to give you everything we can and just keep having fun and living life, buddy.”

Earlier, in the CBS interview with Amanda Balionis on the 18th green, where he and Katherine had already shared a tearful embrace after the winning putt dropped, Morikawa had made the announcement directly: “Put golf aside, you know, we’re actually expecting later this year — in a few months — and we just started telling people this week. What better way to announce this to the world than through a win?”

Katherine Zhu, who played golf at Pepperdine University, is expecting their first child. They told close friends and family just before the tournament began. The win was how they told everyone else.

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The 33-second video was both a victory speech and a public announcement — two purposes in a single clip.

Saturday set up Sunday’s closing birdie. Morikawa shot a third-round 10-under 62, hitting all 18 greens in regulation and gaining 6.46 strokes on approach — the best ball-striking performance of his career, nearly three strokes better than anyone else in the field that day. He entered the week having missed the cut at the Sony Open.

Before the final round, after his Round 3, Morikawa told Balionis, “I am one of the hardest on myself, and I think we all are, but sometimes, you just keep pushing yourself in the wrong direction. And I am trying to dig myself out of that.”

Sunday brought the pressure that validated the quote. Scottie Scheffler started eight shots back and made three eagles, a PGA Tour career first, while draining 151 feet of putts en route to a 9-under 63. He reached 20-under and extended his streak to 18 consecutive top-10 finishes.

Akshay Bhatia, the 54-hole leader by two shots, closed with a 72 and finished three back. Morikawa bogeyed the par-3 17th to fall into a tie, then birdied the par-5 18th after a 20-minute wait caused by a ruling in the group ahead. One shot. His world ranking, which had dropped from No. 2 in 2022 to No. 19 entering the week, moves back inside the top 10.

Morikawa beat Min Woo Lee and Sepp Straka by one shot, closing the first Signature Event of the PGA Tour season at 22-under par to claim his seventh PGA Tour title, a $3.6 million purse, and a move up to third in the FedEx Cup standings.

But that emotional Pebble Beach scene was years in the making, rooted in a relationship that had quietly grown alongside Morikawa’s rise in golf.

Collin Morikawa and Katherine Zhu: The journey behind the Pebble Beach moment

The moment on the 18th green began in 2017. Morikawa played for UC Berkeley while Katherine Zhu competed for Pepperdine. Despite that, they started dating that year. Both were college golfers in California, each building a career in the sport.

Zhu’s golf background was serious. She played 39 events over 107 rounds for the Pepperdine Waves, earning All-WCC first-team honors as a junior and All-American Scholar recognition across multiple seasons. Before college, she had won 16 junior events and competed internationally.

After Pepperdine, she briefly pursued professional opportunities before regaining amateur status by 2023, going on to lead the 2025 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur at Monterey Peninsula as a rookie. Katherine was not simply a partner who followed the tour. She arrived at the relationship as a competitor in her own right.

For five years, they managed competing schedules and major championships. Morikawa proposed on November 30, 2021. They married on November 26, 2022, at Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles. It was a private ceremony with family, friends, and their dog, Koa. After the 2020 PGA Championship, Morikawa said he did not start winning in college until Katherine was in his life.

Morikawa had not won in two years. Pebble Beach changed that in one afternoon. The 33-second message was not about golf.