AUGUSTA, Ga. – Collin Morikawa called his opening 74 at the Masters, the “toughest round” he’s ever played and his bounce-back performances of 69-68 “one of the best tournaments in my entire career.”
If that sounds a bit hyperbolic coming from the world’s seventh-ranked player and two-time major champion, a little background is required.
Morikawa withdrew from last month’s Players Championship after just one hole with a back injury he sustained while taking a practice swing. The physical toll of that injury was still evident Saturday, as he gingerly made his way up the hill from the 18th green following his third-round 68. But it’s the mental toll that has been the real struggle.
“It’s phenomenal,” he said when asked where his performance at Augusta National ranked. “It’s going to be in its own category, but it’s some of the best golf I’ve played, because it is truly putting a mental test into me from the start. Not even from the start of hole one, but from the start of the day when I wake up to just make sure I’m doing the right steps to make sure I can tee it up on the first hole and then get all the way through today.”
Morikawa said he’d hoped to be able to swing at about 60 percent by this time, but “truly netted out at 50 percent” and that the challenge is being able to trust his body under pressure.
“I don’t think I was ever to the point of, like, where I was going to pull out,” said Morikawa, who was tied for 12th when he completed his round. “Maybe that’s a little selfish of me, but I was very thankful that the weather was going to be like this, that it wasn’t going to be soft, and I was going to have to carry drivers a lot farther.”
Morikawa is currently committed to play next week’s RBC Heritage, a signature event, and said he is “hoping a light switch just goes on.”