Collin Morikawa on First Two Seasons: “It wasn’t everything that I wanted.”

It is always surprising when a newcomer overcomes all the world’s elite golfers the way that Collin Morikawa did at the 2020 PGA and 2021 British Open.  Particularly when he had so little professional experience.  It happened so quickly that we hardly had a chance to get to know him first.

We get used to watching golfers progress, inch along, creep up leaderboards, week after week, over a few seasons. We are not accustomed to seeing them literally vault into victory in a short period of time. It’s just not done. But Morikawa didn’t get that memo.

Here are the Cliff Notes of his progression:

In June of 2019, Collin Morikawa started playing professionally on sponsor exemptions and with his U.S. Open qualifying.  Amazingly, before the end of the summer, he was a PGA Tour winner, in late July at the 2019 Barracuda Championship. It was just his sixth tournament, which is astonishing.

Since then, in addition to his two major titles, he won the Workday Charity Open and the WGC Workday at The Concession.   It’s Jordan Spieth like.  Jack Nicklaus like.  Tiger Woods like.

OK, Woods won his 5th PGA Tour event as a pro. Spieth played 16 events before winning. Nicklaus needed 18 tries to win.

Unlike Woods, Morikawa didn’t come to the PGA Tour having won three U.S. Amateurs. So, he truly gave us a bit of a surprise.

Now, in just his third season and after a winter break, Morikawa is ready to tee it up at the Sentry Tournament of Champions where he is coming back from a 100-day vacation from professional play.  (Yes, somebody counted.) He is looking forward to playing serious golf again.

“You had to have won to get here, and it’s just a great feeling,” he said about coming to Kapalua. “It’s a great kind of ease into the year here having such a small field and no-cut event.”

When he was asked by the PGA Tour representative conducting the interview to recap his last couple of seasons, his comment showed that either he’s a guy who only looks forward or he’s a guy who sees the glass half empty. In fact, you won’t believe what he said.

“It wasn’t everything that I wanted,” he said.

Wait.  Two majors and three other victories in less than three seasons?  Not good enough? Talk about high standards.

“I think the consistency factor wasn’t quite there to what I’ve kind of harped on since turning pro, but any time you have a two-win season that’s going to be good and obviously the two wins were pretty big,” he added.

Maybe he needed 110 days off.  Maybe he needs to be easier on himself.  But the best players never are.

“Took me five hits, hit it, don’t even think about it anymore. I think it looks so clean.” — Collin Morikawa on his new driver.

Regardless , Morikawa has come to Hawaii fully armed with some new equipment, in particular the Taylormade Stealth driver, which he thinks makes him a more dangerous competitor than previously.

“Took me five hits, hit it, don’t even think about it anymore. I think it looks so clean.” — Collin Morikawa on his new driver.

“TaylorMade’s been able to put 60 pieces of carbon together on the face, and it’s unbelievable,” he said about the club.  “First two things that we look at is feel and sight and obviously the red face.  Took me five hits, hit it, don’t even think about it anymore. I think it looks so clean.”

Taylormade, according to Morikawa, has been able to create the feeling of hitting a titanium club with carbon fiber.

“To really put it in the face and to change that technology, it’s been fantastic,” he added.

What’s equally important as the feel is that he’s gained some distance.  Since he’s not a long hitter that’s important.

“I haven’t gotten that much stronger, I haven’t gotten that much bigger — but to get that just little extra out of it, it’s going to be beneficial sometimes on certain holes,” he explained.

Morikawa’s average distance for last season ( the one that ended last September) was 295.2 yards. That is not considered a long by PGA Tour standards.  This season, he has increased by nearly 10 yards to just over 304. When he’s competing against the Rory McIlroys and Bryson DeChambeaus of the world who routinely hit drives over 330 yards, ten yards is significant. He knows that.

“I’ve got to put it in the fairway, so it obviously starts from the tee and that’s a huge aspect of my game,” he said.  “Knowing that I can trust a driver that’s not, for me, it’s not going to go left, I can hit my left-to-right cut shot and just be able to hit that everywhere we go, it’s really crucial for me just trusting the product.”

Being in the fairway, one of his strengths, gives him a chance to hit some of his miraculous iron shots, another of his strengths. In fact, Morikawa’s fairways hit percentage for last season was 69.6 percent.  Making things even better, his greens in regulation was just over 70 percent.  So far this season his fairways hit is 64.81 percent and his greens in regulation is 75 percent, which is really high.  He’s 10th of all players in that category.

“So far what I’ve seen in this short, short time it’s already beaten what I’ve had in the past,” he continued to say about the new driver. “The club has produced some really good shots, and what’s great is that so early on into the testing it’s been really easy to transition into it.”

Now it’s down to matching the spin he wants and the launch he wants.  This week will give him an opportunity to test drive it for real.

Morikawa is certain his 100-day rest refreshed him and got him back to wanting to play golf after competing in more than 20 tournaments in each of the last two seasons.  To get what he called the itch to play.

“This 2021-2022 season could possibly be my first normal season,” he noted. “Like I still love it. I love it even more, but I just needed a couple extra weeks, just a little more time to really realize that, okay, now I’m ready to just go out here and just love it and grind and be ready to play some great golf.”

This season, we shouldn’t be surprised when he does.