SLYNC.IO DUBAI DESERT CLASSIC

January 25, 2022

Collin Morikawa

Emirates Golf Club

Press Conference

BRIONY CARLYON: Delighted to be joined by Collin Morikawa at the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic.

Q. I wonder where you are at in terms of your thoughts heading into this week after last week in Abu Dhabi?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I have a lot to work on. Spent all afternoon yesterday working. It was probably the hardest, longest I've worked in a while pre tournament like on a Monday but it's good. Sometimes you need to have that kind of reset button and really figure out and dive deep. I had my agent and my caddie and we were just literally sitting on the range for hours trying to figure out what to do.

We know what's not working. It's just trying to get back to my old swing, right, and trying to get back to what I know I can do. So I still have a couple things I've got to work out and feel, but I'm in a much better position right now, at least if I had to go play tomorrow or right now, versus where I was last week.

Q. Were the issue the compounded by how windy it was in Abu Dhabi, because that can knock you off, can't it?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I mean, it doesn't help. That's how you kind of prep, and I think I heard Phil talk about, you know, starting the year in Hawai'i, you always prepare for really windy and you're going to be off-balance and I know the past couple years when I played out there, you almost have to come back home and reset. This year wasn't windy in Hawai'i, so I felt fine. Come out here, blowing in Abu Dhabi last week, and sometimes you just have to find the center again. It happens. Thankfully I was still able to learn a lot from it and show up this week with a fresh mind and ready to go.

Q. You famously found the reset button to fantastic effects in July last year after The Scottish Open. Can we draw any parallels potentially this week?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, you know, the Scottish is weird because I felt like everything was actually really good. I had just blamed it on my clubs, which normally it's not the case, right, but I was thinking, you know, I made my iron switch, I made a little putter switch. So there were certain things there that the game felt good. Last week, the game didn't feel good. I didn't know where the golf ball was going and I had to kind of figure that out, so look, yesterday was much needed and I feel a lot better where I am heading into this Thursday.

Q. Is there a mental process that you have where you try to forget not just one shot but a tournament like that, what you had last week?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, you just forget about it. It's as simple as that really. It's not I need to sit in a bed or stare at a wall to try to figure out what I do. It's just in my nature, I want to get better. I am trying to figure out what I did poorly this week and try to work to get better this week. It's just that grind, right. At the end of last season, you take a month off and you find that passion and that itch to get back.

Right, and that's what happens, when you have a bad week like that, you show up at a week like just this wanting to get; better, making sure I don't do the mistakes I did last week, and show up here and play the way I know I can play.

It's just about remembering things I've done well in the past, and it's as simple as really forgetting about what happened. I can't do anything about what happened last week. It happened. I played bad. I learned from it. Last year, I have memories out here that I know I didn't play well, I know I didn't putt well and you just try to figure it out and play the best you can.

Q. Last year, you played over here, and you had your issues with jet-lag and other things, but this year, you know the golf course and you don't have jet-lag, I'm sure, by now.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah.

Q. So what are your thoughts for this week?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Look, after last week, obviously like we talked about, I have things I need to work on. I'll get that done by Thursday and I'll be ready. It's just going out and playing the golf course the best I can.

What happened last week, I wasn't really in my head. I wasn't playing to my strengths. Obviously I had no clue the where ball was going out, which makes it a lot harder, but out here like you said, I now the golf course and I know where I need to hit it.

And so at that point it's just going out and playing golf, executing the shots I know, talk to my caddie like we do all the time when we're playing really well and just stick to the same process.

Q. You talked about love and passion, you talked about playing over in Hawai'i. Where would you rather play, would you rather play a tournament where 34-under par wins or one like last week where 11-under par wins?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Doesn't really matter where as long as I'm shooting a 34- or 11-under. I think what we see throughout the year, you see a balance of both. It's fun to shoot 34-under sometimes. I think if I had to shoot 34 under every week, I'd get kind of sick of it.

A lot of it has to do with conditions. Like we wouldn't have shot 34-under par at Kapalua if the winds were up. Last week, 11-under would not have won if we didn't have 30-, 40-mile-per-hour gusts on Friday. So it's all based on conditions.

Some source courses yes, are easier than others but if we played in a dome with 15- to 20-mile-per-hour winds every week we would never see 30-under par. So that's kind of how it is. You see a balance.

Q. I understand what you say about conditions, but is there any knee-jerk reaction to change courses, like when Patrick won the tournament?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: The answer is not making courses longer just so we can have 5-irons into greens. If the greens are soft, if there's no wind, we can fire at any pin from any distance. Scores are going to be low.

It's more about making us play different shots: Hit it out to the right, draw it. Fade it. I think the creativity of golf sometimes on some golf courses, it allows players to bomb it, right, and that's the difference of making a tough course versus an easier course of having a lot of birdies you is see some courses that we have on the PGA TOUR, because I know the courses a lot better, is that there's some shorter courses but 15-under wins because you have to take irons off the tee. You have to draw it around trees. You can't hit it over certain areas, and it goes back to course setup.

Q. I would like to ask you about any change of your golf equipment, and if this hard work and preparation is due to these changes?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, this week, I haven't changed anything. It's been the same setup all throughout this short month so far in January in 2022. I actually, now that you have me thinking, I did change my driver. I actually made it a little more up right than what it was in Hawai'i to start the year. I'm finding the center of the face a hot more, which is nicer, I set it up, hit it right in the middle and obviously that helps the confidence to when you know you can put it in the fairway. But other than that setup-wise, I'm leaving everything as is pretty much.