In late April, Collin Morikawa sent shockwaves throughout the golf world by parting ways with longtime caddie JJ Jakovac, who'd been on his bag for his entire professional career and helped him to a pair of major championships and four additional PGA Tour victories.
It's not as if Morikawa had played poorly up to that point in the season, as he'd recorded six finishes of 17th or better in eight starts, including a pair of solo seconds at The Sentry and the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Yes, he collapsed down the stretch at Bay Hill, thus opening the door for Russell Henley to take the title, but he was playing solid golf and followed up with a T10 at The Players Championship and a T14 at The Masters.
But after a T54 at the RBC Heritage and a missed cut at the team-oriented Zurich Classic of New Orleans, Morikawa felt a change was necessary and made the switch from Jakovac to Joe Greiner, who'd recently split with a struggling Max Homa but had just helped Justin Thomas break his nearly three-year losing drought, serving as a fill-in for the injured Matt “Rev” Minister for JT's win at Harbour Town.
As Morikawa is in the midst of a dry spell of his own, not having tasted victory since October 2023 at the Zozo Championship, the move made sense.
But that relationship has now ended as well, as Morikawa has split with Greiner after just five starts and will have college teammate KK Limbhasut on the bag this week at the Rocket Classic.
Collin Morikawa says his partnership with Joe Greiner "just didn't feel right"
Morikawa's first start with Greiner on the bag went decently enough, as he tied for 17th at the Truist Championship. But that's as good as things got.
In the four starts that followed, the 28-year-old tied for 50th at the PGA Championship, tied for 20th at the Memorial, tied for 23rd at the U.S. Open, and just tied for 42nd this past week at the Travelers Championship.
Morikawa is clearly ready to try anything to get himself back on track, even going gloveless at TPC River Highlands. He also recently switched putters, as the flatstick has easily been the worst club in his bag for quite some time now.
So, there's seemingly some panic setting in for the world's fifth-ranked player, who no longer owns one of the top six slots in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings, dropping down to seventh on the latest leaderboard.
The top six, of course, earn automatic berths to Bethpage Black this September, while everyone else has to rely on being one of Keegan Bradley's six captain's selections. Interestingly enough, Morikawa will play alongside Bradley in the first two rounds of the Rocket Classic as part of a trio that also includes Patrick Cantlay.
Regarding his split with Greiner, Morikawa kept things simple, saying things just didn't work out.
"Just because two people are great at what they do doesn't mean we're going to be great together," Morikawa said Wednesday. "I think Joe is an amazing caddie, but I think just the way we kind of saw things or just day to day how we kind of went about it, we were just a little bit on a different page. That doesn't mean it's right or wrong, but for me it just didn't feel right."
Limbhasut is only a temporary fill-in, as he holds conditional status on the Korn Ferry Tour. As for who will carry his bag next, Morikawa says he's still exploring his options.
"It's a process that I'm going through," he said. "We'll find out when the time comes, and I will let everyone know."