Collin Morikawa Wife: Meet Katherine Zhu, Their Marriage, and Life on Tour
If you’re wondering about Collin Morikawa wife, the answer is simple: the PGA Tour star is married to Katherine Zhu, a former collegiate golfer who has been in his corner for years. Their relationship is a mix of shared competition, steady support, and real-life routines that don’t always make headlines. Here’s what’s publicly known about Katherine, how they met, and what their day-to-day life looks like now that they’re married.
Who is Collin Morikawa’s wife?
Collin Morikawa’s wife is Katherine Zhu (often called “Kat”). She’s not just a familiar face in the gallery—she has a competitive golf background of her own, which is part of why their relationship works so naturally in the world of elite sports. When you watch them together at tournaments, it’s clear she understands the pressure, the travel, and the mental grind that comes with playing golf for a living.
That shared understanding matters. Pro golf can be lonely. Weeks blur together. One day you’re in California, the next you’re overseas, and the expectations never stop. Having a partner who speaks the same “golf language” can be a quiet advantage, especially when your career is measured in tiny margins.
Katherine Zhu’s background as a golfer
Katherine Zhu played collegiate golf at Pepperdine University, where her bio lists four seasons of competition, academic honors, and multiple strong finishes. She grew up around sports and played at a high level well before the public started associating her name with Morikawa. Pepperdine’s roster profile also notes she was born in Vancouver, British Columbia and attended Zhuji Hailiang Private High School in China before college in the United States.
What makes her sports background relevant is not just that she can swing a club. It’s that she knows how athletes think. She understands what it feels like to chase improvement, to lose by one shot, and to wake up the next day still focused on getting better. When you’re married to a golfer, that mindset can be more helpful than any motivational speech.
How Collin Morikawa and Katherine Zhu met
Morikawa and Zhu first met in 2017, during their college years, when he was playing collegiate golf at the University of California, Berkeley and she was competing as a college golfer in California as well. They connected through the golf world, which makes sense—tournaments, shared circles, and the kind of competitive environment where you quickly notice who is serious about the sport.
Morikawa has credited Katherine as a positive influence in his life and even joked that his winning picked up after she entered the picture. Whether you take that literally or not, it matches what fans see: she’s been around through the climb, not just the champagne moments.
Engagement: when they took the next step
The couple got engaged in November 2021. Morikawa later shared that proposing made him more nervous than golf, which is a funny detail coming from someone who has won majors on the biggest stages. But it also sounds real. Golf is what he does every day. Proposing is a one-shot moment, and you don’t get a mulligan.
That engagement timing also says something about their pace. They dated for years first, built a foundation, and then made it official when it felt right—rather than rushing because of public pressure.
Wedding details: when and where they got married
Collin Morikawa and Katherine Zhu married on November 26, 2022, at Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles. Their wedding was described as an intimate, black-and-white themed celebration with close friends and family. They kept it classy and personal—more “this is our moment” than “this is a show.”
One detail fans loved is that their dog, a goldendoodle named Koa, was part of the day too. It’s a small thing, but it fits the picture of who they seem to be: competitive, driven, and still very attached to normal, warm home-life choices.
Why their relationship feels like a true partnership
Some athlete relationships look like “star and see-what-happens.” This one feels more like two competitive people choosing to build a steady life together. Katherine understands what it takes to succeed in golf, and Morikawa has openly praised her for being there through the highs and the quiet middle parts—those long stretches where nothing flashy is happening, but you’re still grinding.
Golf relationships are also tested in a unique way. The schedule is constant. The travel is exhausting. The emotional swings can be sharp—especially for a player who expects to contend. A strong partnership in that environment usually comes down to a few things:
- Trust (because time apart is normal on tour)
- Patience (because form comes and goes)
- Real communication (because pressure changes people)
- Shared perspective (because golf can be all-consuming)
Katherine’s sports background makes those pieces easier to build, because she isn’t guessing what his world feels like. She already knows.
Katherine’s role on tour: support, travel, and real presence
Katherine has been seen supporting Morikawa at major events, team competitions, and big wins. That support doesn’t always look dramatic. Often, it’s simple: being there, staying steady, and helping keep life normal when the outside world is anything but normal.
She has also appeared in moments that show how comfortable she is in golf settings. One example that often comes up is her caddying for him in lighthearted settings, like the Par 3 Contest at Augusta ahead of the Masters. Those moments might look cute on camera, but they also show trust. You don’t hand someone your bag—even for fun—unless you’re comfortable with them in that space.
What fans notice about Katherine Zhu
Even people who don’t follow pro golf closely tend to notice a few consistent things about Katherine:
- She keeps her image polished but not overproduced. She doesn’t come off like she’s trying to outshine the moment.
- She looks calm in high-pressure environments. That’s usually a sign of athletic experience.
- She seems genuinely invested in his career. Not in a “brand” way—more in a supportive, personal way.
That last point is the big one. Golf fans can usually tell the difference between someone who’s present for attention and someone who’s present for the person. Katherine reads like the second.
Life beyond the leaderboard: how they keep things grounded
The thing about being married to a pro golfer is that you’re living inside a moving calendar. Seasons overlap. Off-weeks vanish. Travel turns into routine. If you don’t build small anchors, life becomes all airports and scorecards.
From what they’ve shared publicly, they seem to keep life grounded through normal routines—time at home, time with their dog, and trips that aren’t always about golf. You’ll occasionally see them at events outside the sport, like tennis tournaments, which hints that they make room for being a couple, not just “golfer and spouse.”
That matters because golf careers are long. The couples who last are usually the ones who learn how to separate “the job” from “the relationship.” If every conversation becomes about swing thoughts, the relationship gets starved. The healthiest dynamic is often this: support the career, but don’t let it swallow the marriage.
Why the internet is so curious about “Collin Morikawa wife”
Morikawa is one of the most recognizable names in modern golf—young, accomplished, and already a two-time major champion. Whenever an athlete rises fast, the public curiosity follows. People want the full story, including who they come home to and who keeps them steady when the spotlight gets loud.
There’s also something relatable here. For all the glamour of pro sports, the relationship side is still human. You can win on Sunday and still have laundry on Monday. You can hold a trophy and still need someone who reminds you to eat, sleep, breathe, and live like a person.
Katherine fits that “real-life stabilizer” role in the way she’s been described publicly—without needing to become the main character of the story.
What their timeline tells you about the kind of couple they are
When you look at the timeline—meeting in 2017, engagement in 2021, marriage in 2022—it suggests a relationship built on patience and long-term thinking. They didn’t rush. They didn’t stage a constant public rollout. They let the relationship develop alongside careers that were already demanding.
That approach often leads to healthier outcomes because it prioritizes foundation over flash. It also explains why fans feel protective of them. They don’t come across as a couple living for headlines. They come across as a couple living for each other.
The simple answer
So, if you came here for the clean takeaway: Collin Morikawa’s wife is Katherine Zhu. They met in 2017 through collegiate golf circles, got engaged in November 2021, and married on November 26, 2022, at Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles. She’s a former collegiate golfer and a steady presence in his life on and off the course—exactly the kind of partnership that tends to last in a high-pressure sport.
image source: https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2020-08-08/collin-morikawa-moves-within-striking-distance-at-pga-championship
