COLLIN Morikawa tapped in for par to become the champion golfer of the year, and that meant 263 days until the words, “Fore, please,” introduced the next major at Augusta National.

The end of big golf until then? Not quite.

Rory McIlroy indicated as much going into the British Open when asked if the memory of missing the cut at Royal Portrush in his native Northern Ireland still lingered.

“Not really. I ended up winning the FedEx Cup in 2019, so it gave me a few million reasons to feel better,” he said with a smile, alluding to the $15-million prize.

More valuable than a major? No. But it’s all players have in front of them — not to mention that little exhibition between the US and Europe the last weekend in September.

The FedEx Cup has become increasingly important to players. Dustin Johnson was so irritated not to have won it that he decided at the start of 2020 to skip the Olympics so he could stay fresh for the postseason.

The Olympics were postponed last summer, Johnson won the FedEx Cup, and he wound up skipping a trip to Tokyo this year, anyway.

Johnson is at the 3M Open this week in Minnesota. So is Louis Oosthuizen. They are among six players who gave up their spots in the Olympics and are playing a regular PGA Tour event.

Oosthuizen had said earlier he had family commitments. Sergio Garcia, who played in the last Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, said he wanted to focus on representing Spain in the Ryder Cup.

Some of them might not want any part of an Olympic experience that won’t be much of an experience at all with all the restrictions because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

And then there’s Camilo Villegas, whose withdrawal from the Olympics cost Colombia an additional spot in the 60-man field. But he’s in a precarious spot. Villegas is at No. 118 in the FedEx Cup with time running out. Rafa Cabrera Bello of Spain, who also pulled out of Tokyo, is at No. 166 in the FedEx Cup.