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SENTRY TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

December 31, 2019

Collin Morikawa

Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Collin Morikawa into the interview room, making his first ever start here at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. Take us back to your win at the Barracuda Championship. I know this was one of the tournaments as soon as you won that you started thinking about.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, it seems like a long time ago. A lot of events have happened in between then. Going back to Barracuda, obviously that was a dream come true to finally win a PGA TOUR tournament, and that just opened so many doors for me and especially being here to start the year. It's a tournament you want to be at. If you can start your year every year here, it means you've done something good. You've won, obviously, and hopefully get off to a good start for 2020.

JOHN BUSH: Obviously a special meaning to you playing this tournament, as well. You've got family in Hawai'i on your dad's side. Talk a little bit about the history here in Hawai'i.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, my grandparents on my dad's side both were born in Hawai'i, actually on Maui, and I just have so many cousins, uncles and aunts that live throughout the islands, so he used to come back here as a kid, and every time -- I've been able to come to Hawai'i quite often, and I love it. It just feels so relaxing, so much like home, and it's just such a good place to be.

JOHN BUSH: Before questions, talk about your history here at the Plantation course. Have you played this course before?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: I played it when I was like nine, so it's been a while. Obviously with the renovation and everything, I don't remember really anything from what I played it when I was nine. I just remember sitting right outside the clubhouse taking a family picture, and that's about it. It's a brand new look for me. The course looks amazing, good shape, so I look forward to it.

Q. Even though you don't remember anything about when you were nine years old, did you know where you were and the significance of the golf course as a TOUR event and that kind of thing? And did it make any impression on you just saying, wow, I'm playing a place I see on TV?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Absolutely. To play any PGA TOUR course before you're actually on the PGA TOUR is cool, I think. I think it's something you realize what the PGA TOUR players get and the courses that you can play one day hopefully. And a few years ago when we came, we would come over New Year's, and when we saw the courtesy cars with the sticker slapped on the side that said Sentry Tournament of Champions, I thought it was really cool because I was kind of in awe, like oh, you know, there's a player somewhere around here, and maybe one day I'm going to be that player, and it happens this year that I'm over here with a courtesy car driving around whether it be Lahaina, Sun Street, whatever, and I'm one of those players now. So it's kind of come full circle where as a little kid I'd look up, see these guys in these cars and now we're here.

Q. How soon after you won Barracuda did you think about I'm going to Kapalua?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: In the media center when they asked me. I didn't think about anything. There was nothing in my mind after I won. It was just pure happiness. My family was there, my girlfriend was there, and it was just -- it was awesome, especially to close out kind of the summer like that and have more events to play after. It was everything I wanted.

Q. You've had a lot of success early and throughout your junior and amateur career, as well. Are you sort of guarding against feeling like it's too easy? I was just talking to Cameron Champ yesterday and he said he got to that point a year ago where it almost seems easy and then he had a slump and that was difficult. Are you trying to guard against that?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: I wouldn't say too easy because I'll keep setting new goals, and that was the thing this summer was to get my card, if not get to the finals and go from there. But after I won I could have thought of it as, yeah, cruise control, but it's little learning. I've still got to show up to these weeks because I've never seen the courses really. I've got to learn them. I'm still learning what to do every single week and how I'm going to time manage everything. I wouldn't say it's too easy. There's so many things, you look to next summer, there's the Ryder Cup, there's the Olympics. Those are still far-reaching goals, but they're there. Why not? It's still in my head.

Q. Speaking of goals, are you a guy who writes them down? Do you have on-course goals as well as off-course goals? Can you share any of them with us?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: I don't write them down. I more talk to my coach, talk to my trainer, whatever that may be. But for me it's not just I'm going to mark this goal off and then it's going to be done for the rest of the year. I'm going to try and keep improving, make it better, set a different goal if I do mark something off. There's just so much to do. That's why golf is great.

Q. What was your biggest thing you learned in this past year?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: I think coming out, I knew -- this summer, right, I knew time management was going to be a big thing. I played two PGA TOUR tournaments as an amateur, and I just didn't manage my time well Monday through Wednesday. I stood out there from sunrise to sunset because everyone else was, but that's not me. So for me it was just a lot about figuring out what I was going to do, and I used kind of my senior year in college to do that, to figure out how I was going to play in everything.

But this summer I think I just proved to myself that I can do it and play with these guys. These guys are just -- they love the game just as much as me. They're out here to play the best golf they can. And that's what's fun because I've been able to make a lot of these guys, hang out with them off the course, and we're all normal guys.

Q. Anything surprise you, good or bad?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Not really. I mean, the perks we get as a PGA TOUR player, the courses we play, we get the nicest ones. Conditions are always the best. You get spoiled sometimes going home for about a month or so over winter. You actually get spoiled out here. But I love it. I love every day of it.

Q. You mentioned the Olympics. Is that pretty high on your list of goals, to try to get to Tokyo?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: I mean, it's not on one of my immediate goals. I'm not thinking -- like this summer I was not thinking every week, oh, I need to get my card, I need a win. I just want to play my best golf, and we'll see what happens after. So yeah, the Olympics are very hard to qualify. You have to be so high up in the rankings. You've got to beat everyone else. That's going to be a progress. It's a goal obviously in the road, but I'm not worried about that right now. It's there, though.

Q. The mindset years back for a player, rookie to come out here and almost declare that, well, it's going to take me five years to learn where to go, how to play, how to act. How it seems like more and more players like yourself when they first get to the PGA TOUR, they're ready to win. They expect to win. Can you shed some insight into maybe a couple of the reasons why that's so?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I think -- I mean, there's a few different reasons, right. One, you see other players do it. You see guys -- like for me, the person before us that got his card was probably Joaquin. You seem him do it in the start -- you see young guys win on the PGA TOUR. So it gives you some sense of belief. I'm sure what Matt, Viktor and I did this summer are going to change a lot of guys in college and how they view how they're going to go through college, how they're going to come out, what starts they're going to get, can they make something out of it. So that's obviously one part.

I think another part is what we believe in ourselves. Knowing Matt for a while, Viktor for a handful of years now, it's just a lot of self-belief. We believe that we can do it no matter where we are.

And then I think another point is college -- I think college sets you up really well to succeed. You have everything in college. Like looking back now, even though I've been out for a half a year, everything is there for you to pretty much succeed as much as you want to. You obviously have to have luck on your side and everything, but you have the resources, you have the technology now these days. You have the team. You have the courses to practice at.

For me, getting those two PGA TOUR starts before I turned pro were huge. I mean, I learned more in even missing a cut at the Safeway Open I think in 2016, the fall of 2016, I learned more missing the cut than I did making the cut or finishing second in a playoff on the Web.com a few years ago.

I think for those guys and for myself, I wanted to learn every single week, and I've been able to do that, and I still am.

JOHN BUSH: Collin, thank you for your time. Best of luck this week.

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