Collin Morikawa said he is excited about making his debut on European soil and learning a new style of golf ahead of his first start at the abrdn Scottish Open.
He is one of four of the top five players in the Official World Golf Rankings teeing up at The Renaissance Club for the second Rolex Series event of the year, and said he was excited that he was able to add this event to his schedule.
“First time in Europe,” Morikawa confirmed in his press conference on Tuesday.
“Obviously I've played a few events on The European Tour, but to finally be here knowing that I was going to kind of put this in my schedule for quite a while now, I'm excited.”
Morikawa is entering the week following an impressive run of form, which includes top tens during both his recent defence of the US PGA Championship and in the U.S. Open three weeks ago.
Now, the World Number Four is hoping he is able to bring that form to Scotland and is relishing the challenge of learning how to play on a different style of golf course than he is used to.
“I'd say over the past month has been solid golf and it's been really good golf.
“Hopefully I'm able to bring that game out here and play it and figure out how to play out here. Obviously it's not true linksy-type golf course, but it's still different than what we see out in the US. It's not the normal greens you see, the run-offs. Normally out there in the U.S., you can just fly everything kind of close to the hole and see it stop and bounce.
“So it's a learning curve but it's a learning curve that I enjoy and I love being creative. I love kind of coming out here and it kind of fits my game. How do I figure out how do I hit my iron shots, play certain pins, play aggressive to certain hole locations out here. It's really enjoyable to see a new course and figure out in these next kind of two days how to play the golf course.”
And while he's navigating jet-lag and a different challenge on the course, Morikawa said he one thing he is enjoying is the familiarity of being surrounded by players he grew up competing with.
"I've seen Sam Horsfield, probably since I've been ten," Morikawa explained.
"Sean Crocker, I saw him earlier today. We grew up 30 minutes from each other. I've known Sean Crocker since literally 10, 12 years old. So seeing a couple guys like those two, seeing Min Woo Lee that I played with quite a few times in amateur golf; I saw I got paired with Bobby MacIntyre for the first couple days, so that will be fun. Obviously good Walker Cup memories on my end, probably his, as well.
"You know, it's just cool to see a lot of young guys. Those are the guys that we resonate with the best because we've gone through the process all together. We've seen each other's golf game for a while. It just makes things kind of a little more fun when you're paired with these guys or you see them because I've grown up with them. It just makes things a little more comfortable when you travel quite some ways to get over here."
He gets his first round underway alongside MacIntyre and Lee Westwood at 8.10am on Thursday.
