WORKDAY CHARITY OPEN

July 10, 2020

Collin Morikawa

THE MODERATOR: We'd like to welcome Collin Morikawa to the interview room here after a very successful start at the Workday Charity Open, 65-66 through 36 holes. Just an incredible couple rounds of golf. With that said, just a few comments on your first 36 holes.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, obviously a really good start, making a lot of birdies, hitting really good approach shots, and for the most part, the game feels good from top to bottom, whether it's off the tee, putting, approach shots. So it's obviously nice to hit some approach shots, hit my cut that I just hadn't had the past couple weeks. So it's good to be back, and we've got two more days of the same thing.

Q. I know you talked a little bit about taking that week off. Did it give you perspective, just physically and mentally refresh you coming into this?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I think it's always nice to take a break. Even though you want to play so much after this quarantine and get back because you see everyone playing, having a week off is obviously nice to reset, see what I was doing good, what I wasn't doing good, and it really just came down to just me realizing I've got to hit the ball better. I wasn't giving myself birdie opportunities, and then the few I did, whether through our RBC and Travelers, I just wasn't making the putts. At the end of the day, just had to figure some iron stuff out, just really went back to the basics, had my coach out here the first few days, and we just got things sorted out, so we're on track for hopefully another good weekend.

Q. You said you immediately fell in love with this course. Is it because it's a second-shot course or it fits your eye?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: I think it's just beautiful. I think everything, stepping on property, obviously the locker room and everything. But we talk about the course, I think it does fit my eye. Hitting that left-to-right shot, I had heard from a lot of people before, this course was going to suit a left-to-right shot anyway. Obviously Jack hit that, and I think it does. But I've been able to put myself, leave myself some really good numbers into approach shots. I've been keeping myself in the fairway for the most part, and that obviously helps.

I know the rough isn't up to where it normally is for Memorial, but it's still bad, and the first cut out here is almost like you get flier lies, so it's almost thick enough to where you're not going to be able to spin it as much.

I think throughout these past two days, I've just been able to really plan it out, and you've got to be smart out here. You can't be giving away shots. I think I gave away a couple today that were just really bad shots and just never should happen, but it's going to happen over 72 holes.

Q. What happened on the 18th green?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Just a really bad putt. I left myself 40-something feet from the front right of the green and just hit a bad putt the first putt and never got it up the slope and left myself, whatever, seven, eight feet for par, hit a good par putt and didn't get -- I thought it was actually going in and it never found the hole. We'll make a par or birdie at some point hopefully this week.

Q. I thought I had seen that there was a delay between you tapping in and -- I thought there might have been something going on there.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: I was about to step up to the ball and the ball just wiggled a little back, so I just had to call in a rules official just to check.

Q. Coming out of the rain delay, did you have a six-footer for birdie?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: I did, yes, on 7.

Q. Did you practice that during the delay?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: No, I did not hit a putt. I thought about it when I was driving the cart, I probably should have hit some putts. But you know, the putter felt good, feels good in my hands, sets up really nicely, and I was looking through my yardage book and the greens book kind of throughout the rain delay to see what it was going to be like, what kind of putt I had. I knew it was just going to be an inside right putt, hit it firm and it caught the left side of the hole.

Q. You have a six-shot lead now. What keeps you from looking ahead?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: I think I just have to focus on tomorrow. I think if I get ahead of myself, that's when bad things are going to happen, so I've got to look, see what my game plan has been the past two days and stick to that tomorrow. I think a little more wind is expected tomorrow. Who knows who's going to take it deep today. Whether I have the lead or not, I've got to go into the weekend feeling like I've got to make the same amount of birdies I have been the past two days. I feel like there's a lot of birdies out there for me especially, the way I've been hitting it, so I've just got to keep that up, play smart, like I said, and attack pins when it's available for me.

Q. Collin, where did your cut go, and where did you find it?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Oh, my cut shot? Where did it go?

Q. And where did you find it?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Well, I wish there was a secret for that. No, you know, I just didn't have the cut shot where I could aim six yards left and be able to pull it back to the pin and feel comfortable wherever the pin was. For me, it just was a lot of rotational stuff, really basic stuff, just pretty much starting at the setup, and something we figured out actually late Wednesday after I finished my practice round stuck with me. It's a drill I've been doing forever. I stick my left glove in my left armpit, swing, and that's the most basic thing I could be doing, but it's been working, so I'm just going to keep doing that and just worry about hitting my shots.

Q. Your first practice round here was when?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Tuesday. I played 18 holes.

Q. It seemed like for the last month or so, you kind of became the poster boy of the guy who's never missed a cut on TOUR since turning pro. I'm not saying it was a burden or anything, but did it kind of wear on you, considering you're not a guy who was thinking about, gee, I hope I make the cut this week instead of trying to shoot the lowest score basically?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: You know, there was a lot of attention for that, and who knows when I'll look back and realize that was a pretty good feat to accomplish, whether I got there or I was a few short. But at the end of the day, you're out there to win tournaments. If you miss the cut, make it by whatever, you just want to learn from each week, and like I said, I learned a lot from those two days missing the cut than I have in a lot of events so far when I've been finishing whatever. If I finish 40th, just say for example. So you know, I've gotten to really look back at the PGA TOUR tournaments I've played in as an amateur when I missed the cut at Safeway, I think it was my first PGA TOUR event, I learned more in those two days than I did making a playoff in a Web.com event that same year, or when I made the cut at Bay Hill as an amateur. I learned a lot from missing the cut, and obviously I don't want to miss more cuts just to learn more, but it really gets my attention to really figure out, okay, what do I need to work on to get better to be more consistent to come out here every week and just be ready to play golf every Thursday through Sunday.

Q. It almost sounds like you're saying when you finish T21, good week, maybe there's something off and you don't realize it because it's a decent week, but it takes bad golf to search a little more?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Exactly, yeah. I think sometimes when something really doesn't go your way, like missing a cut, it just stands out a little more. I had known at RBC my ball-striking wasn't well, went through the practice rounds at Travelers, felt fine, and then I go to the tournament and I'm not able to hit a shot. Then you realize it. So when I go take my week off, then you kind of go back to the drawing board, see what's not working, what's a little different. So yeah, you know, it gets your attention a little more, but I think that's where I need to be a little more on myself when I finish whatever, T20-something and I really have to nit-pick what I need to do better, not be okay with like, okay, if I just made a few more putts we could have been a top 5. I think that's where you're actually going to teach me something there, thank you for that, down the road. Just to kind of nit-pick every week, obviously take positives. You're going to have positives every single week, but really learn from no matter what you finish, first, second, last, and just learn from it and go to next week.

Q. You had a lot of short birdie putts. What was the best shot you hit today?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: I have no clue, to be honest. I didn't even realize I made nine birdies. I couldn't give you one. I seriously don't know. I think one of the best iron shots was probably on 3, to that back pin. I hit a little chip 9-iron, and we just hit our number, we hit it exactly where we wanted, gave myself a nice six-, seven-footer up the hill, and that was probably the shot that matched what I saw the most today.

Q. Who's your coach, and how long have you been working with him?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, so his name is Rick Sessinghaus, works out of LA where I grew up. He's been my coach for 15 years now. So it's been -- he knows everything about my game. He knows my tendencies, and he knows what to look at. He knows how to think. He's a huge mental coach, as well. And I think that's what works really well, because he knows what my tendencies will be, and then when I'm off, it's a simple fix. I think for a lot of us out here, it's a small little thing. Normally whether it's that setup -- it's not something too drastic because I think all of us can really play golf really well on those good days.

Q. This being such a great game of negativity, are you a guy that gets down on yourself, or do you consider yourself negative or positive?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: You know, I'm a pretty neutral guy. I like to stay on that positive side. Obviously being with Rick for so long, he's been able to kind of coach me without me even knowing when I was a junior, just how to get over shots, and I think I do a pretty good job of that. If I have a bad hole, move on to the next. You can't do anything about what has happened. You did it, learn from it. It's all about learning, and then go on to the next shot and hit a great approach shot, go make a putt, do whatever. I think a good example was on 6 today, I just got way too cute, and I left myself a downhill chip again, and I could have beat myself up for that, but I knew I still had to make up-and-down just to save bogey, and that's what I did. I'd say I'm pretty neutral to that positive side.

Q. When is the last time you threw a club?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: I don't remember. I really don't.

THE MODERATOR: Collin, well done, thanks for your time and look forward to seeing you back here over the weekend.

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