THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY NATIONWIDE

June 6, 2021

Collin Morikawa

Muirfield Village

Quick Quotes

Q. Just give us your emotions and thoughts on the day.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Obviously it sucks to lose a playoff. But today was a grind and that's all I could focus on. I was not hitting -- I was hitting the ball well, but it didn't show that. I couldn't really hit a green for my life. I was hitting my shots that I wanted and we were a little off calculating, a little off with just luck, and sometimes that happens, but to get into a playoff to make the putts I needed to make, just to keep myself in it, I'm proud of myself and it's crazy. It's crazy what a game it is. I didn't feel like I really ever played this game where I'm missing every green, chipping, making 10-footers. I like it the other way where I hit it a lot closer. But it's going to be something I'm going to learn from a lot and just look back and see how I can grow from this.

Q. Did you have to recalibrate over the night because of what happened yesterday?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: No. You know, it took me an hour or so to really just digest what had happened. I was in the locker room and then my girlfriend texted me. I went down stairs to look at the TV and you see what happened to Jon and it's awful. He deserved to go out and play really well and he was 18-under. The rules are rules and you have to follow guidelines. We knew all the risks going in, him not getting vaccinated. But you know what, for me, all I had to do was focus on my game and go out and play golf. There's nothing else I could really change. I can't dictate anyone else's future or how they play or what's going on. So waking up this morning I felt great. I was ready to go play golf and see if I could win the tournament.

Q. (No Microphone.)

COLLIN MORIKAWA: I didn't really hit a green, so. Are you talking about Friday or today?

Q. Today.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I didn't hit a green, so I really don't know. Putting-wise it felt the same. It smoothed, actually smoothed a few things out. These greens, with guys wearing metals, I wear metals, it chews it up here and there but, you get a little softness in it and it just makes it a little greener, it looks a little nicer. And obviously that putt on 17 was huge.

Q. The mud ball on 18, could you describe what happened? Did that --

COLLIN MORIKAWA: In the playoff? No, it wasn't a mud ball. It was a very poorly executed swing. It happens. Bad swings are going to happen. Not the timing I needed to, it just needed to be a stock 6-iron, land it just short of pin high and bounce it up there. But I still gave myself a putt at it and to be honest I hit my putt exactly how I wanted and all day I thought I hit really good putts and game feels good.

Q. On that last putt do you allow yourself to go back to last year when you went in on top of JT and does that enter your mind?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: No, not really. All I was focused on was trying to make that putt. I think if it got in my mind, even, I could have hit even a worse putt. I really had to focus on my line. I did my routine just like I did Thursday morning on the first round, first hole. I stuck to the same thing, went there, and obviously I'm on the other end of that, which sucks.

Q. Did you expect Patrick to make his putt?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I mean, you got to expect guys to make that putt. He kind of knew the read from being a little farther away, so he kind of knew what the line was going to be. I didn't think it was that breaking of a putt, so he had a pretty good read on it. So in that situation you got to expect him to make it and you got to expect yourself to make it as well.

Q. Are you more surprised what happened to Jon happened at this point in where we are in this thing or that it didn't happen more often, because we really haven't had that situation occur over the last year when it obviously could have.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, no, I think we have all been really scared and we have all thought of this what-if scenario. But that's the thing with what-ifs, we can only think about it and think what we're going to do and try and do this, do that until it actually happens and it's very unfortunate to, for him to have it like that where he had a six-shot lead, he had it in his kind of possession right there. Obviously there was 18 more holes, but we know the risks. People know the risks of not getting vaccinated versus vaccinated. It's a personal choice. I mean, no one should be judged. What I was seeing yesterday with how many people were judging Jon for doing this, doing that, like, it's got to stop. Why are we judging people off that? Jon's a great guy. Jon helped me out. He told me why he stayed four years in college and it's one part of the reason why I did stay. So I'm sure it was bound to happen at some point to someone. It sucked that it was him. He was playing so well. But I think we're all going to learn and we're going to make strides forward. We're going to figure out what's the next best thing to do and it's all we can do from there is prepare for the worst and just be ready for when things like that happen.

Q. (No Microphone.)

COLLIN MORIKAWA: I don't know. Maybe I just think the way he thinks off the tee and into greens. Distance-wise and just layouts, fits into my wheelhouse, hitting fairways, hitting those 8-irons, 7-irons. And I love it. Jack's an amazing person. I've gotten to know him a couple times and gotten to meet him over the past year or so and it's amazing. It's amazing to meet someone like that in the game of golf and I really cherish than and it's great to play on golf courses he designs.

Q. (No Microphone.)

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I was fortunate enough to have a bag tag on my bag and he was one of the Nationwide Children Hospital's patients, his name was Sam. And, you know, it's amazing what they go through, what he has gone through. But he wrote me a card right before Thursday's round and it was in my locker and he told me the motto he kind of lives by -- I wouldn't quote it exactly -- is that just people can go do hard things. And he's done a lot harder things in his life than I have and I might ever will and that really stuck with me today, it's going to stick with me for the rest of my life.

And this is a hard thing today what happened, not just what happened on the last hole, but what happened all day, just not having my game, but you're going to grind things out and you're going to learn from it, you're going to live from it and only just become a better person from it.

Q. You and Patrick seem like low-key guys. Could you describe what that round was like between you knowing how you are and things like that and going mano-a-mano?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: I don't think we said many words. It was last year in that final round when I played with JT in the Workday, when I realized he's here to win, he showed up. And JT's been a great friend, a great guy that I've been able to talk to and Thursday, Friday rounds he might talk to me here and there, we might chit chat, but once it came Sunday it was all business. He didn't care about me, he didn't care about anyone else, he cared about himself and wanting to win and I think that's what the best players do and that's what we go out to do on Sundays in the final round, give ourself chances.

So the emotions were definitely pretty level throughout the day, we had a few fist pumps here and there, some big kind of momentum shifts, I don't think it really got ever out of hand for either of us, but we made some key birdies and they were never really tap-ins, they were always like 10, 15-footers.