Collin Morikawa said he is here to win and not just to tick off another WGC appearance following his fourth place finish at the Olympic Games.
Morikawa is one of several players who have made their way from Toyko to Memphis following last week’s Olympic Games, and the recent Open Champion is clear that fatigue and jet lag is not something he feels will be an issue for him this week.
“The biggest thing is that during those off weeks is taking enough time off. Normally when I've come back from Asia I feel absolutely drained, I feel dead, but it's because I haven't had a tournament,” said Morikawa, whose last four events have been the U.S. Open, abrdn Scottish Open, The Open Championship and the Olympics.
“But so far, knock on wood, I've slept great the past two days even coming back from Tokyo. I think it's a 14‑hour time difference. I've still slept really good, I've gotten my rest and I feel great but I think it's because I know I'm here to win, I'm here to compete. I'm not here to just tack it onto my career and say I've competed in another WGC. I want to bring everything I have, I want to bring what I've brought the past kind of month and a half of golf this week here to Memphis.”
Morikawa, who won his second Major title just three weeks ago at Royal St. George’s, barely had time to celebrate his Open Championship victory before heading to the Olympics – where he ended the week as part of the seven-man bronze medal play-off.
He was ultimately the last man to be defeated by C.T. Pan on the fourth play-off hole, but the World Number Four was keen to take the overwhelming positives from both experiences. For him, a huge part of that is putting himself consistently in contention, as he focuses on finishing the season strongly.
“Although I wasn't able to get a medal there even through that long playoff, I'm an Olympian and that's what happened over the past week is one of the best experiences in my life.
“Obviously winning The Open a couple weeks ago is just awesome. Life's in a great spot right now, I'm very happy, I'm playing well. I'm having a good time and that's the biggest thing I think for me at 24 is just to enjoy it. I said I've had a lot of fun, especially that summer of turning pro obviously I played really well. You play bad here and there, but overall it's just about enjoying it, how do I learn, how do I get better. That for me is I want what's more and what's next. I want to keep winning, I want could keep putting myself in contention because it's fun. It's enjoyable. Those are the kind of pressure situations you want to be in.
“So looking back over the past couple weeks, I haven't really been able to celebrate as much as I want to or I need, but that's something that when I have a good chunk of off time, that's what I'm going to kind of take away and relax. For now, we're almost to the postseason, we're almost to the Playoffs and I've got a big focus ahead of me and I want to be able to finish the season off really strong.”
He now returns to TPC Southwind with fond memories, as he admitted he made a huge putting adjustment with his grip here last year that helped lead to his first Major win at the US PGA Championship.
“To be honest, this week last year kind of kickstarted a lot of what happened,” Morikawa explained, having finished in a tie for 20th.
“PGA happened the week after, learned a lot, just really made some strides. I think I made the biggest putting ‑‑ actually, the grip change was huge, but I made a huge adjustment for putting that helped me win at the PGA.
“It's just good to be back at a place that I haven't played great here, but I have some memories of some good shots. Just overall, what a great event this is. To see some fans out here this week I think hopefully will make it a great week as well.”
But his putting grip wasn’t the only thing Morikawa credited behind his success. At a time where being mental health is at the forefront of conversation, Morikawa also spoke on the importance of the work he does with his coach Rick Sessinghaus – who has a master’s and a doctorate in applied sports psychology.
“Rick's been awesome, and golf is such a huge mental aspect of what we do, it's not just hitting a golf ball in the hole. There's tough things and I think it's a huge topic, especially now with being mentally healthy because Rory touched up on it in the Olympics that it is a part of who we are. If you're not mentally ready and you're not mentally fit, it's going to be tough to go out there and compete especially when you have a bunch of fans, people rooting you on, people expecting something out of you.
“But for me there's so much self driven passion for just wanting to get better, wanting to improve and learning every single week that it just pushes me to just stay in it. I think even in the bad weeks when I'm not playing well, I'm just trying to learn from it. I think that's what's really fun and exciting is that this game is so hard to just perfect and you can wake up one day feeling great and the next day you could lose everything and not know what you're going to do. I want to find that reason on what makes this day different than this, how do I become a little more consistent because that's what the best players in the world have done. You look at the guys that have won a lot of times in their careers, they have found that recipe to figure out how to be consistent.
“Me being so young, it's still a work in progress, but it's been fun and I think that's the biggest thing, how do I keep this fun and for me to just want to learn. I think if I stop learning, that's when we've hit a point of just, you know, I've kind of reached a peak.”
