THE 150TH OPEN

July 14, 2022

Collin Morikawa

Mixed Zone

Q. Overall, how did the round go, do you think? Did you leave some out there?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah. I think I three-putted twice from the fringe or three-putted three times on the fringe at least. You just can't be giving yourself eight to ten feet for par out here when you're just off the green.

Sometimes it's going to be okay. It's going to be the best position you can. But spots I was putting myself in today should have been put yourself within five feet, make that putt, go on for the next. I just gave too many shots away on the greens, and it sucks.

Q. How are you finding the speed of the greens? Like did you have the speed in the practise rounds? Were you surprised?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: No. I felt like lag putting was doing really well. We obviously hit a lot of lag putts throughout the practise rounds, and everything felt fine. Sometimes you have those days, but it's pretty frustrating when you felt like you had it and you don't start seeing putts match up to what you see.

Q. Were you expecting it to be as slow as it was?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Slow what, pace of play?

Q. Yeah. Not the greens.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: I figured it would be slow, but I didn't know it would be this slow. We were waiting on groups at tees, waiting on fairways. Xander and I talked about it, we're watching more golf than we ever have. You stay in the fairway, and you're watching two other groups play golf.

That's part of it this week of just staying patient and make sure you're not rushing your shots.

Q. Did it get even firmer later?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: I wouldn't say so. I would say the greens definitely have firmed up a little bit. They have a little bit of extra bounce. But so much is dependent on where the wind is. The wind kind of switched from what we've seen the past couple days for practise. You see some of those last few holes kind of a little more downwind. From there you're just trying to hit good shots to 20 feet and take that.

Q. With everything going on this summer, Rory has taken a pretty hard stance and not outspoken about everything. Does his voice galvanise you guys? Does it carry a little more weight?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Little more weight than what?

Q. Than everybody else. Everybody's voice matters, but when he's so outspoken.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: I think you know all the guys that have spoke about the PGA TOUR. We've all kind of said what we believe. Look, we all support each other. That's the biggest thing is like we're all here to play in the PGA TOUR and do what we do.

Q. How much love was there for Rory out there in the gallery?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: A lot. You hear your specks of Collin and specks of Xander, but it's hard to beat Rory.

Q. Given how you've kind of said you've been struggling a little bit with your ball striking, are you encouraged by it today? I know you said you didn't putt well, but just how you're hitting it and controlling the ball?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah. Today was kind of just a blur. Today was just hit some good drives and hit a bad second shot, hit some good second shots, hit a bad putt. Never got any momentum going.

The only momentum I had was 9 and 10, and after that, it was just kind of like scrambling for pars, trying to make five to ten-footers. That's stressful golf. Out here you can't make it stressful in a major championship when guys are making some birdies and taking advantage of those holes that are fairly gettable today.

Q. You played with Rory on Sunday at Augusta. How did his round today sort of measure up to that charge he tried to make there?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: I mean, Augusta was near flawless. I'm trying to remember if he made even a bogey, I don't think he did. That was like flawless golf, right? To end it the way we did was even that much more spectacular to enjoy that. Today was a really solid round of golf. Didn't make any errors, hit it in the right spots. When he was out of position, put it in a great spot.

Overall, it was awesome. That's what I need the next three days if I want to get myself in this tournament.

Q. What surprised you the most today, Collin?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: How bad I putted. Yeah. I mean, the course was what it was. Nothing was surprising. I mean, we knew what we were going to see in front of us. I mean, it's not like they watered the fairways or they put concrete on the fairways before we played today. It is what we've been seeing the past few days.

So nothing surprised me. It's just how I played.

Q. Do you like this golf course, Collin?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah. I mean, look, this place is very special, I think, for a lot of reasons. You do have to think about, depending on where the wind is. Today we definitely made some game plan decisions that were different than what we thought going in, just because of the wind. And you have to know every bunker out there. You've got to know where, if you hit it a little through, where is it going to be.

There's so much thinking to this golf course that it's great. I think that fits into what I like to do, but at the same time, you've got to execute. And if you don't execute, it's only a game plan.

Q. Were the greens running differently than in the practise rounds? Did that contribute to the three-putts?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: No. Just bad putting. Simply bad putting.

Q. Does this feel like a place where experience matters more than other places just because you have to know where everything is?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: No. I mean, I think you just have to be committed to what's you're doing, right? I mean, hole -- where did I chip on the green? Hole 14, I think it was, where I chipped on the green. You can't miss short of that pin. You just can't. No matter what you do, no matter how bad of a shot you hit, you can't miss there.

I think all the caddies out here, all the players, they have done their due diligence to show up today on Thursday and be ready to play golf. I don't think we're walking into this golf course being like, man, that's a weird mound that's in the middle of the green we didn't see. It's all there for us.

We all do a good job. J.J. does a great job, and it's just on my end of like when I'm over that shot, just telling myself that extra little bit like we're missing long. Like it's not that hard to miss long when the fairways are running at whatever.

So it's just a little bit more of a -- a little bit more focus is what I need for the next few days.

Q. Chip on the greens in California, you probably get in trouble, right?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: I don't know why people get all upset when you chip on the greens. It is what it is. If you've got to chip, you've got to chip.

Q. Did you pick it clean or --

COLLIN MORIKAWA: No, I picked it clean. You can't even make a dent on these things. It was like I had a nice green patch where I was today too. So we're good.