Dustin Johnson, Collin Morikawa Like RBC Heritage Harbour Town GL

Long hitter Dustin Johnson and medium hitter Collin Morikawa both like Harbour Town Golf Links, site of this week’s RBC Heritage.

“I love playing this event. I think it’s a great golf course,” Johnson said to media before the tournament. “It’s a tough course, too, so you know you don’t have to shoot real low, which I like.”

You’d think a guy who broke the scoring record for the Masters last year with a 20-under performance would be fine going low. But Johnson enjoys the challenge of the Pete Dye design. And he’s not the only one. Morikawa likes it too.

“I’m excited to be here. It’s a course that I think really suits my game,” Morikawa said when he met with media. “A lot of tee to green, a lot of approach shots that are kind of in my wheelhouse.”

However, Morikawa thinks he will like the course in its overseeded condition better than when it was the third tournament of the re-started PGA Tour schedule in June. At that time, the Bermuda grass, the most common kind of underlying turf in warm weather climates, had taken over from the winter overseed of rye grass.

“Last year I struggled a little bit,” he admitted. “Just had a few issues through the turf with my irons.”

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Johnson grew up on Bermuda grass, so he’s no stranger to it. Morikawa, who grew up in California where Bermuda grass is only found in the warm desert areas, is still learning it.

Morikawa’s recent putter and putting style change at the Genesis Open may be the key for him again this week. In LA, he went to the TaylorMade Spyder FCG and perhaps more importantly, switched to the saw grip. He won the next week at the WGC–Workday.

Speaking of putting, Johnson’s has not been where he likes it for the past few weeks, but he believes he has it back on track.

“My speed was really bad, and my setup was a little funky,” he said by way of description of the problem.

It hurt him at the Masters. By his own admission he had a couple of three putts on Thursday and four, three-putts on Friday. He said his putting was part of the reason for missing the cut there. As defending champ, he was disappointed by that, but as a golfer, he was back at it, practicing on the Sunday of the Masters tournament before getting ready for the green jacket ceremony.

As far as only having the green jacket for five months instead of 12, he’s fine with that.

“I’m always going to be a Masters champion,” he noted.

With regard to how he’ll play the Harbour Town course, Johnson said he will probably hit only a few drivers because of the design of the course. The numerous dogleg holes restrict how far anyone can hit.

“For me, driving distance really isn’t important anywhere. It’s hitting the fairways,” he insisted. “I can hit it further than I do if I want to, but I don’t have control, so I’m trying to hit fairways.”

Morikawa has had four victories in just 42 events, which is a really good record for anyone not named Tiger Woods.

“I want to keep winning, because at the end of the day that’s what we’re kind of defined by,” Morikawa said about his career to date. “But overall, like, there’s still so much for me to work on.”

Right now, Morikawa is concentrating on improved consistency because, as any PGA Tour player will tell you, that leads to success in the long run.

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