PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 5, 2020

Collin Morikawa

Harding Park Golf Club

Press Conference

PAT KRAVITZ: Thanks for joining us here at TPC Harding Park for the 2020 PGA Championship. We are joined by Collin Morikawa.

Collin, welcome back to the Bay Area. You'll have about 14 months between your first two major championship appearances. Can you just share what that experience has been like for you?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, it's crazy, to think back 14 months, a year ago, I was at the U.S. Open at Pebble, it was nice to have a major at a place that I've been to, I've played at, kind of local area. But to go that long without playing one, you know, you kind of miss it because these are the tournaments guys really look forward to. These are the ones they mark on their calendar to get ready for.

Yeah, it's definitely nice to be back on another course that I've played quite a bit, or at least a handful of times. Makes it easier for travel and coming to the course and not having to figure out what certain lines are. But it's another major championship. It's No. 2 for me. It's a little learning experience that's going to have to happen.

I think this year, just going through the PGA Tour and playing in bigger events, it's all kind of helped me prep for this week, anyway.

Q. Can you tell me about some of the specific memories that you have about Harding Park and in college?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, we used to come out here once in a while for qualifying, so we'd come out in the afternoon. I've never seen it in the morning, really, so I haven't seen it with the really dense fog and heavy air. Sometimes when we are trying to finish up the rounds, we'll kind of have that coming in the last few holes where it gets really cold. Weather-wise, even though I haven't felt this for over a year, it feels pretty normal to me.

It's weird, when I came out of college and started working with my caddie J.J., he started telling me all these numbers. He's like, it depends where you are -- I'm like, no, I'm pretty sure I hit my 8-iron 163 yards and now we're back here and I'm hitting my 8-iron 163. Last week we were hitting it like 175.

Yeah, it's all just going back to what I did the past four years, but it's good to be at a place that I'm comfortable with.

Q. Growing up on Chevy Chase and playing at that course, any memories of how you sort of tricked that up? It's such a short little course there.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I was fortunate to be there, and really there was no one else there. We had like five guys that would play a day and luckily I had a couple guys that were four or five years older than me that were decent at golf.

So we had a lot of fun. They gave me a cart and I was able to go around, hit whatever balls, drop ten balls on a tee, play other holes, make my own holes. It just got me creative and that's how I've always played golf. I like playing on the golf course. I don't like spending too much time on the range and that just keeps my mind going and keeps it sharp.

Yeah, being able to play there, even though you don't hit every club, you don't hit a bunch of 3-woods or drivers, I was able to figure it out and kind of make my own course from it.

Q. This is your second major championship appearance, but what about your game gives you confidence that you can win this this week?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, you know, I've already had two wins. I don't know what event I'm in, almost to 30, I guess, but I've gotten really comfortable out here. I've gotten to know all these guys, the guys that I've been watching on TV for years now, and I think that makes it easier because I'm not coming out here -- if I compare it to when I was at the U.S. Open last year, I didn't really know many guys. I would come out here, do my own thing. Last summer I got to play with Rory. I got to play with DJ, Justin Rose. I played with all these bunch of guys but I had never met them and I didn't know them, so it was kind of like, wow, these guys know what they are doing.

I'm out here now knowing these guys, talking to these guys, playing practice rounds with them. So there's a sense of comfort and a sense of, okay, I know I belong here and we are all here to just play really good golf. Yeah, I do feel very comfortable.

I think my game, especially last weekend in Memphis was heading in the right direction. I putted a little bit better. I need to hit the ball better, especially out here this week. You've got a bunch of long irons and you've got a bunch of drivers, but for the most part, it's a matter of fact of can you step on the first tee tomorrow and be ready and not think about, oh, man, we are at a major championship, or we are in whatever, this event, that event. It's just can we go out and make as many birdies as we can and play some really good golf.

Q. Having said what you just said, when you've played a course a handful of times as you said you did, when you come out, scale of one to ten, what is your confidence level being able to attack this course, and, how cool is it that Max Homa is with you, a couple of Cal Bears in this field?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: This course is playing very different than I've ever seen it. I've never seen rough on this course. Some of the tees we really never played. We never really tipped it out during qualifying. Stanford hosted their event here one year because they did some redesigns on their course, but they never tipped it out. We are not going to be playing 480-, 500- yard par 4s in college.

It is very nice to come back to a course like this that I've played. I talked to Max last week. He said he had not actually played here that often. I think we were very lucky, and he tells me that. We kind of got the really good end of their really good season and we started playing some really good courses out here like Cal Club, TPC, Lake Merced after he had left school and I kind of showed up.

It's nice to be back in the area. I didn't think I missed in the Bay Area that much. I thought I was ready to get out. But coming back, flying in on Monday and kind of just knowing where to go, knowing what the course is going to be like, not having to figure out where the putting greens are, driving range, it just makes things a little easier, especially during a major championship week, where you just -- every second adds up, and you know, when you're just changing your golf bag, media, actual things of seeing your coach, whatever it is, it all kinds of adds up and eats away at your time that you normally spend out on the golf course. It's all about just figuring out what you're going to do for the week.

Q. How did the practice round with Steve Stricker come about, and how does that make you feel when he wants to play a round with you to get his eyes on you for next year's Ryder Cup?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: It's awesome. I had never met Steve, and he was really nice about it. We had a phone call, he actually called me the second round of Travelers right before I missed my first cut. He just wanted to introduce himself, and just get to know him. Because like I said, the more people you know out here, the easier things get to just kind of come out here and play golf.

We were trying to schedule a practice round at some point. We tried at Muirfield and our times just didn't work out. He told me, "Let's go play Tuesday at the PGA," and of course I'm going to book that into my schedule. To play with him and Davis Love was pretty special. You know, kind of just watch him play golf, because I love the way his short game goes, his approach shot, his chipping and putting, and just trying to learn off these guys. These guys know what they are doing. They have everything down to a point, and for me to learn off that, and for me to even be in a question for next year's Ryder Cup is an honor. But we've still got a lot of work to do. It's 2020 and it's August -- it's crazy that we're in August already, but I'm only focused on this week at the PGA and really tomorrow's round.

Q. Did you answer the phone when he called you?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: No, I didn't. I sent him a text and he didn't realize I was playing at Travelers. But it was all right. I talked to him the next week when I had a week off.

Q. Coming back here and being back in this weather after playing a lot of warm-weather golf, was it easy for you to adjust because you've played so much golf here, or did you do some things to get on a launch monitor to get back acquainted with these different yardages? And then also, what are you going to do with your golf bag as a Dodger fan once this week is over, since it is a Giants theme?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: That's a great question. That's a wonderful question. I wouldn't say it was easy, but I think it was easier than on some guys that have not played in this cold weather for a while. You think about all these guys where they live, whether it's in Florida, Georgia, Texas, I'm in Vegas. It's over a hundred degrees or it's super humid where these guys are and so balls are flying a lot farther.

I did some TrackMan work today, checked some numbers, and seriously, they are back to the numbers that I had in college or back to the numbers I told my caddie I had when he first started caddying for me, which is cool, but you still have to adjust to getting used to the heavy air. Especially when it's in the morning or late at night when a little mist comes in, the ball is not going to fly as far. You've got some wet water balls out there. You just kind of pay attention to those things. I would say I'm pretty lucky that I'm able to play out here for four years, just to get a little extra sense of how things fly, but these guys are good enough and they know what to do.

As far as the golf bag, my caddie, J.J. is a big Giants fan, so it is immediately going to him after the tournament ends. It will not be staying in my house, I guarantee you that.

Q. You won the Workday at Muirfield Village, and next week, a dramatic change to the golf course in terms of length and playability and how hard it was. How would you compare that shift week-to-week from your college play at Harding Park to what the PGA Championship is going to look like? Is that a similar-type scenario?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I mean, somewhat. This is a major championship. We are comparing a major championship to a college event. Pins are obviously going to be tougher. Rough is not even comparable. Tees are all the way back.

So yeah, I mean, I wouldn't compare it to Workday and Muirfield. Those were two very different conditions. You even talk about greens, how firm they got, the conditions we got, the wind, the weather. But yeah, it's kind of hard to compare. You can't go and look back at the scores and be like, okay, we're going to judge what the best players in the world are going to shoot based off of a Stanford college event that 90 guys are in.

Yeah, I'd say this is definitely playing a lot tougher than what I played two years ago, roughly.

PAT KRAVITZ: Collin is off at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. Good luck this week.