DETROIT — Collin Morikawa has won two major championships and hit some incredible shots during the first six years of his PGA Tour career, but the one that popped in his head when he was asked to name the best of the bunch happened on the 18th hole at the 2021 DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
“I’ve watched the shot many times on YouTube because I’m like how do I make it that easy,” he said on Wednesday during a press conference ahead of the Rocket Classic. “Front left pin, water on the left, had 4-iron I think out of the first cut and I hit it exactly where I wanted. I mean, I could miss it in the water, lose the tournament; hit it in the bunker, not make up and down. It was picture perfect. And it’s rare you get to do that, but that’s, you know, that’s why we keep practicing. Like I’m telling you, it’s inches, margins, centimeters, degrees. We’re crazy, but we love it.”
Morikawa, 28, is searching for that feeling again at Detroit Golf Club, where at No. 5 in the Official World Golf Ranking he is the top-ranked player in the field at this week’s Rocket Classic. Two years ago at this tournament, he posted four rounds of 67 or better and lost a three-man playoff to Rickie Fowler.
“Pretty good memories,” he said of his lone previous appearance at this event. “I mean, ’23 was not a rough year, but at a time where I wasn’t playing great, to be able to come out and put together some good golf to then go through the rest of the season and into Playoffs, that’s what I’m looking for right now as well.”
Morikawa jumped out to a flying start, finishing runner-up at The Sentry and the Arnold Palmer Invitational, but victory has remained elusive. He’s hit a rut of pedestrian finishes by his high standards, failing to record a top-10 finish since the Players Championship in March, including T-42 last week at the Travelers Championship.
Morikawa is trying to shake things up by changing caddies yet again. He parted ways with longtime caddie J.J. Jakovac in April and split with veteran caddie Joe Greiner ahead of his appearance in Motor City after just five events together.
“I think people, they’re going to be surprised but the way I put it is just because two people are great at what they do doesn’t mean they’re going to be great together. I think Joe is an amazing caddie, but…we were just a little bit on a different page,” Morikawa said. “We spend more time with (our caddie) than anyone else in the world, honestly. I spend more time with them than my wife sometimes. It’s a true relationship.”
While he said he hasn’t determined a long-term replacement yet, Morikawa has his former Cal Golden Bear teammate KK Limbhasut, who competes on the Korn Ferry Tour, filling in on the bag this week.
“I appreciate him doing that and we’re going to go out and have a blast,” he said.
Much of Morikawa’s frustration stems from the glaring absence on his resume this season – a victory. A six-time Tour winner, he’s searching for his first title since October 2023. The biggest culprit holding him back? His putter. He ranks 109th in Strokes Gained: Putting and lost more than 8 strokes to the field at the U.S. Open two weeks ago and still more than 2 strokes to the field on the greens at the Travelers Championship.
To find an answer for his putting woes, Morikawa delved into the world of high-tech solutions. Equipment site GolfWRX reported that last week that he “implemented Vertex Golf motion sensors, which are lightweight sensors that attach to the putter shaft to help measure different parameters such as face angle, lie, path, club head speed, and stroke tempo, under the supervision of putting coach Stephen Sweeney.”
Fortunately, Morikawa is gaining strokes tee-to-green in 2025 at a clip better than anyone not named Scottie Scheffler and ranks sixth in SG: Approach the Green. And yet the quest continues to dial in his trademark fade a little more.
“You work so hard to make this game so precise,” he said. “We’re talking about 1, 2 degrees that we drive ourselves crazy, but that’s what we do. At the core root of it, we’re just really good at controlling little, little minute movements throughout our swing and it’s finding what works. We’re on a good path even though the results haven’t shown.”
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