SENTRY TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

January 8, 2023

Collin Morikawa

Plantation Course at Kapalua

Quick Quotes

Q. We know how bad you wanted it. What are you feeling right now?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Sadness. I don't know. It sucks. You work so hard and you give yourself these opportunities and just bad timing on bad shots and kind of added up really quickly.

Don't know what I'm going to learn from this week, but it just didn't seem like it was that far off. It really wasn't. Yeah, it sucks.

Q. You missed in some really difficult spots. Is there anything going back you would do differently?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: No. The drive off 14 wasn't that bad. I've been in that bunker, it's not like it's an impossible bunker shot. Normally 10 out of 10 times you're putting that to within 15 feet at worst. I caught it thin.

Q. Where did you feel like you started losing some of the control of the situation?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: At that point when I thinned it and made that, missed that putt for par.

I mean, 10 I felt like I hit a good putt. 11, I hit a good putt. 12, hit a good putt. 13, didn't hit a good putt. But you're going to hit bad putts out there.

So everything felt fine. You make a bogey there on 14 you're like, Okay, you got 15, you got 18, we're still in it, we're still right there, no problem.

Then 15 just pushed the 5-wood just enough and knew it was going to roll down. Practiced that chip a bunch too and obviously not enough.

Q. Probably be a little hard to do now, but the first three days you played so well. When you look back on this can you focus on those things?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I mean, my game hasn't felt like that in a very long time. We saw, I saw little specs of it throughout kind of the fall season and was never able to put four rounds together. We're still getting there, but for me I know there's still a lot of work to do. Obviously it shows today, but I'm willing to put in that work.

I think at this point now it's just kind of going to hopefully just push me more and more to really figure out what it's going to take for 72 holes.

Q. When did you start to feel Jon breathing down your neck?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: When we were walking down 12 I saw that he made birdie. And I knew I was still I think three ahead at least at that point. I knew I still had chances and the game was feeling good.

But once I made the bogey on 14 and they were walking off 15. And didn't see the leaderboard until I got on the green and you realize I'm putting for par to stay tied for the lead. At that point it's a little different feeling than what you had early on.

Q. The question that will come out of this is did Collin Morikawa lose this or did Jon Rahm win this. What's your thoughts?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: A little bit of both. I mean 1-under on this course is not a good score. It really isn't. I was 3-under through whatever, six holes. 3-putted 5 as well.

He still shot 63. But I still, you know, I still had it within reach. If I don't make those bogeys and I make par, we're right there.

So he definitely made the birdies when he needed to. But I also made bogeys. When you're getting bogeys at that time of the tournament they're costly. I definitely felt the weight of that.

Q. What's upcoming as far as what you're going to be playing?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: I'll play Farmers, I'll play at Torrey and then I'll play Phoenix and L.A. Places that I've all played at before in the past. I haven't played Torrey and Phoenix because I've gone over and played the DP World Tour the past couple years. But obviously playing the U.S. Open there.

Phoenix I have some good memories of making a lot of eagles.

So I can finally say it's not back to the drawing board after this week, it's just really just figure out the small little things.

Q. Will you get back to it right away or give yourself a day or two?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: No, I'm going to take two days off and enjoy Hawaii a little bit more. It's not going to be as great, but it will still be good. But, yeah, my mind's already thinking about what we need to do. It's going to hurt, but I got to get over it because we're still in the very early parts of the season.

Q. From a disappointment level as a professional, is this the highlight or the lowlight?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Of my career so far? I would say so. Can't really think of anything else. Yeah, it's hard to look at the positives, it really is.

Q. Different or same to Hero?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Hero is different. Hero started off bad, never found it, never felt good, just bad. Today it felt fine. Just made three poor swings, really, at the wrong times. It's never a good time to put a poor swing on it, but sometimes it works out and these never worked out.