PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 17, 2022

Collin Morikawa

Southern Hills Country Club

Flash Quotes

JULIUS MASON: 2020 PGA champion Collin Morikawa is joining us at the 104th PGA Championship. You are the reigning Open Champion and you are playing in just your third PGA Championship. Let's get this out of the way right away right now. What's more difficult, winning the first or the second major?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Just winning in general. No, really, look, I think every time it happens -- luckily I've been fortunate to have it happen a handful of times for tournaments since I've turned pro, you just really embrace that. You feel how lucky you are and all the hard work and you really feel that emotion that comes up when you finish.

You know what, it's been a while. Hopefully can get back to that mentality and get back to that state of let's just go out to win. We're here to win.

Q. Really old traditional layout here at Southern Hills. What do you think about the place?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: It's good. I've been able to see all 18 holes so far the past couple days, and yeah, there's a lot -- it tests every aspect of your game, but some tee shots you really have to put them in good spots even though the fairways are wider than where it was in '07.

But you've just got to place your ball really, really well. You've got to give yourself some good shots, you've got to give yourself some good areas to miss it, because sometimes the chips out here are going to be easy uphill and then sometimes you're going to be making 5 at best.

You just have to be aware of the things, and even though you want to be kind of tunnel vision, laser focused out there, you need to stay observant because out here it can kind of get away from you really quick.

Q. A lot of people speculate with your iron play you might be a favorite this week. Do you feel like this course demands a really good, accurate iron game? Is that anything you've noticed out there?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: I feel like that's kind of anywhere I go, any golf course. Out here you're probably going to have a mid to long irons on a couple of the par-4s depending on what the weather is going to be like and how firm or how soft the fairways are going to be.

But yeah, for me, that's my game, so I always tailor to that and I always feel like any course I show up at, you're always going to be hitting irons and you're always going to be feeling like you can play well.

Yeah, sometimes courses you're going to have more short irons. This week I've felt like I've had kind of a range of irons, mainly on the mid to long iron side, especially on these par-3s out here. Hopefully those are firing at full cylinder and we're able to hit some really good shots.

Q. Collin, what part of the course do you feel uncomfortable, because a lot of people kind of think that Southern Hills fits your game perfectly? I was just wondering if there's any part that feels uncomfortable, and which wind direction do you think the course plays the hardest in?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Well, I couldn't give you an answer because I haven't played it enough to know every wind direction, where north, south, east, or west is out here yet.

I would say every course that we show up to, you have to figure out what tee shots fit your eye and you can have a line really quickly, and there's a few holes out there that sometimes don't.

Every course is different out here. I might have three, four holes that I've got to kind of work on where I want to tee up the ball on the tee box, where I want to line up my tee shot, where my misses might want to be because sometimes -- I mean, maybe rough, even though the rough is pretty penal and the ball sits down, sometimes the rough might be better. You might be able to run it up or maybe bunker is going to be better.

So it's just figuring out where you're going to give yourself a biggest target to be able to play from.

Q. We haven't seen you since the Zurich. What sort of things have you been focusing on at home?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Just kind of tightening everything up. The game has felt really good over the past kind of month where I'm kind of going out and just playing golf. Been working on putting tremendously and trying a couple new things just to kind of see if I can see putts a little differently, read them better, stroke them a little better.

But I keep thinking back, what's the difference between when you win events and when you don't win, and sometimes it's just a mentality type of thing. You show up to a tournament and you have this kind of feeling.

Some weeks you show up and it's just kind of smooth sailing and you're just ready to win, and sometimes you just need to tell yourself that and hopefully you can translate that into good golf.

Q. Just talking about that theory, when you rolled into Harding Park and when you rolled into last year at the Open Championship, what were your feelings going into those?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: They were very different. So Harding Park was obviously a place that I had been. People make it seem like it was my home course. I had played it 10 times, but I knew the Bay Area really well.

So I showed up during COVID, and it was like this weird feeling that you show up to the putting green and everyone is like breathing differently because it was a major championship.

I showed up like it was any other week. Felt great about my game, especially after the week before in Memphis. We'd changed a couple putting things that worked out, and just went out to go play golf.

The Open last year was kind of different in the sense of the irons -- everything felt great, but the week before at the Scottish I was kind of mis-hitting irons. I was doing these things, wasn't putting well.

So I still had that belief deep down, which is kind of how I feel now. It's just we haven't seen that extra couple shots to put you in contention come Sunday. I've had some late runs, but sometimes it's just like believing and knowing that everything you're doing is going to put you up there come Sunday.

That's kind of how they differ. Doesn't mean it has to be the same every week, but I think by the time you tee it up on Thursday, you're here to win, not just come in top 10 or top 5.

Q. On the putting thing, if you can be a little more specific on what you're actually working on.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: So I played with Viktor at Zurich and he uses a line on his ball, and I was just messing -- I hit it maybe two or three times during Zurich just to try, because trust me, we couldn't make a putt for our life.

I was trying to use a line, and just messed around last couple weeks just seeing if I could use it, if I couldn't use it. I've never used a line in my life. I just never felt comfortable over it. But I found a way to where I feel like I can stroke the putt.

That's what I've been doing over the past couple weeks, and it's felt good. Do I wish I had maybe another event to try it out? Yeah, but we're here. Taking risks.

Q. Do you feel like you're more a feel guy or a mechanical guy?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: I'm definitely feel. That's the biggest thing is like a line kind of gives you more technical aspect, but you can stay feel-wise because you can just line it up to how you kind of -- where you feel it, right?

I think putting a line takes out a variable of where I'm aiming. The line at least just tells me and then I can just feel everything else after that.

For me I like taking out variables. I like to know the reasons why, this, that. And that's the thing, is for me you can see some patterns putting over the past three years, but sometimes you don't know. Sometimes maybe I'm not even aiming where I say I am because it's literally -- I lined it up blank; there's nothing on top.

Hopefully this kind of gives me a little more answers on where to go.

Q. Are you so married to this that you would do it through four rounds, or is there a point where you might say, eh, maybe I'm not going to do that today?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: It's feeling so good the past couple days, past two weeks really, that I'm going to trust it. It goes back to the saw grip when I started with Mark O'Meara.

Like it felt so good that it just kind of brought something out in my putting, even though when I first tried it I made nothing. The first week I used it at Riviera last year I made nothing.

Hopefully that's not the case this week. It's a minor change, but it's not really changing how I feel over the putt, which is the biggest thing. It's just helping me put my putter down to where I want it to be.

Q. Now that you are a two-time major winner, do you still feel no pressure when you come to a major? Do you feel more pressure, less pressure?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: The pressure is always there because this is what we love to do. You feel that pressure because you want to win. So I wouldn't say there's more; I wouldn't say there's less.

Thankfully I've been able to knock off two and not have these questions about when you're going to win one. For me it's let's go win another tournament; let's go win this PGA.

Q. Do you think the fact that this week the attention is on other things helps your process, makes things easier for you?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I guess. You guys aren't bombarding me with questions, which is nice. For me you go back to the house, you come out here, play golf, and I think at the beginning of the year I was trying to do a lot -- I was trying to do too much in my prep Monday through Wednesday even at regular events.

I was just doing too much, and that's not me. I like to be in and out. I like to come here, do my quick practice, get out and call it a day. I'd rather sit on my couch at home and relax with the cat and the dog and caddie.

That's what I've kind of realized since the Masters is just stick to being me.

Q. This year is kind of a big historic year for majors, and maybe Tiger Woods' history at Southern Hills, in St. Andrews. Is that a reference for you, and what do you think are his chances to win here this week?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I guess he's got a lot more memories and probably a lot of good memories, but at the end of the day I want to beat him. I think the course has probably changed so much from '07 that guys can have good feelings, but you're probably hitting a lot of different clubs; you're playing it a little bit differently.

This is what we do. We play in nature, so you look at our forecast for this week, like we don't even know what to expect, right? I mean, you could have a great draw early, you could have bad weather, you could have windy, thunder. It's all over the place.

For us it's just how do we adapt as quickly as possible and go out there and post four good numbers.

Q. Your coach said that even with the heights you've reached, you're still always asking questions of other players, other people, hunting for clues and still doing that. I wonder if you could describe sort of the importance of sustaining curiosity.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I'm kind of like a silent hunter. I don't really like go and ask and just like chirp and bother these guys. I kind of just watch from afar, which sounds really creepy when I say it.

But that's what I do. Xander Schauffele has moved out to Vegas and we've just started playing a bunch together. Couple weeks ago we were playing 18 holes, and it's just -- you just kind of grasp and you watch how other people do it.

It doesn't have to be Xander. It could be any guy. I've got a lot of guys in Vegas. Out here there is a bunch of guys. When you play on team events like the Ryder Cup you just watch, and there's so much knowledge there that if you just sit back and actually listen, you can gain so much and learn so much about what they do and what makes them so great.

That doesn't mean I'm going to copy them, because at the end of the day there's no way for me to copy what they do because they have completely different feels. What they tell me might not be exactly what they feel. It's just about piecing a lot of things together and making yourself think in a different way.

That's the biggest thing, is that since I've turned pro, since I've been in college, it was just like, how do you think differently? How do you view something in a different viewpoint to where you can get to the final answer?

Maybe you end up doing the same exact thing, but you got there in a different path, you got there in a way of I never thought about my hands being here or doing this or lining up the ball. There's just so many things that I can still improve on, as well.

Q. The LIV and the Saudi League continues to sort of hover over everything that's going on this week and the Tour in general. When you strip that down, that storyline, what are you left with? What's at the heart of what's happening there do you think?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: A decision. Everyone has got their choice. I heard JT say that last week. But at the end of the day you make a decision, do you want to do this or do you want to do that.

I said earlier this year that my heart is with the PGA Tour and that's where my decision was made. I think everyone has that opportunity to make a decision.

When it comes down to it, it's more about where your heart lies. You weigh where you are in life, what's important, what you want to do, and you make a decision. You do that every single day, every second of your life.

This one has just been blown up way more by the media, by everyone else, because it is a big decision. But that's everyone's choice. For me, you guys know my decision, and that's where I stand. Just come out here and win the PGA.

Q. Is there an element of be careful not to screw up a good thing?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: You know, I've only done this for three years, right, or two and a half, almost three years. We're in May; I think I turned pro in June. I'm going to call it three years.

Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought what I've done over the first three years is everything. I love what I do and I still want to keep getting better, but you always dream of the PGA Tour and you dream of winning majors. You dream of becoming No. 1 in the world. You dream about coming out here.

I never would have thought about all the nuances and legal stuff and all this other stuff that goes beyond just coming out here and playing golf.

It's a cool aspect of what I've been able to realize is that obviously there is so much more than just showing up here and playing golf. There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes.

But still three years in, I'm learning. You're learning and taking in everything, just how we're going back to how I'm getting better is I'm taking in so much of the operations and everything that goes within it.

Asking me about this stuff, it was a simple answer for me because this is what I wanted to do all my life.

But a lot of these guys, these veterans, they've kind of seen what they like and what they don't like, and I think I'm just so young and I'm having a great time. What's there to complain about when we're out there playing golf and doing what we love?

Q. Since you brought up JT and his comments, JT seemed to think or say that if you want to go, go. Do you feel that way, or do you embrace guys that want to maybe play in an event over there and then play in a PGA Tour event if they were a member?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Look, Jay has said what he's said, and the PGA Tour has made its stance. I can't speak against that because that's what's out there. Legally I don't know how everything is going to transpire, but it goes back to everyone has got their choice. You figure out where you are in life, you figure out what you want to do.

Simply on paper there's a lot of money involved, right, so that money has to be a factor if that's what you're making this decision by.

Yeah, if you want to go and play, you can go and play. No one is holding you back to say, no, you shouldn't play. You have your choice.

At the end of the day, it's your responsibility to make that choice, not anyone else's.

Yeah, when you think about it, that's what it is right there.

JULIUS MASON: Good luck this week.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Thanks.