Collin Morikawa, from Cal, had the chance to play in his first PLAYERS Championship last year, but the tournament was ended after the first round because of the COVID pandemic.
Now he’s back for this year’s event with much changed for the golfer as with his win in the delayed PGA last year, he has a Major title under his belt.
Here is Morikawa’s the text from Morikawa’s virtual press conference Tuesday!
MICHAEL BALIKER: We would like to welcome Collin Morikawa to the interview room here at THE PLAYERS Championship. Collin, last year you received your cufflinks from Commissioner Monahan as first timer. Obviously, we only got to complete one round. You’re coming into this event in top form after winning WGC Workday at the Concession. How excited are you to take on this golf course, given that last year’s debut was cut short?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I’m super excited to be back and it’s really crazy. I think everyone thinks it’s crazy that it’s been a year, but we have all gone through a lot and we have seen a lot of what the world has given us, and we are here. Really happy to be here. I think we’re really excited, but I’m also just really pumped to come out here and play TPC Sawgrass. I played it as a junior player, as an AJGA, obviously I had the one round last year, but the course is looking amazing so far, past two days, Monday and Tuesday. It’s going to be a really good test Thursday through Sunday.
Q. We talked about Concession that was really your first experience to play in front of fans since the restart, and now that we’re at 20 percent capacity here at Sawgrass, how much are you looking forward to that aspect and just kind of playing in that atmosphere again?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, well, to be honest, khakis with the pleats and feet in the cleats keep butts in their seats. You know, I’m just super excited to see a lot of people out there. We miss it. It brings so much energy, just watching it on TV last week at the Bay Hill a little bit, just seeing people get energized about certain shots you hit or you hit a great shot or hit a great drive like Bryson did, it just really keeps the momentum going, it keeps the flow going for our rounds when we’re playing well and just hearing claps is just great to kind of hear again.
MICHAEL BALIKER: We’ll take questions, please.
Q. How many rounds have you had at TPC Sawgrass do you think, and do you think it suits your game? At Harding Park, you were down the middle a whole lot and that can’t hurt you at Sawgrass.
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, it can never hurt you if you’re in the middle of the fairway, I promise you that.
I would say I’ve probably had maybe eight to 10 rounds on this course so far. Playing two years of Junior Players, that means I got at least three rounds each year, so six rounds and then I played a bunch last year right before the tournament started or ultimately ended. So, this is a great test, the rough is up, it’s really thick, it’s sticky, almost in a sense where you land it in the rough it’s not going to come out, so you got to keep the ball within the fairway and I’m looking to do that this week as well.
Q. Have you gotten any tips on the line of putts and whatnot from past players like where to hit it on 13 and that kind of thing?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Not really. I rely on my caddie and my coach. We do some really good prep throughout the week and we did a lot of prep obviously last year that we weren’t able to really test out for four rounds, but I’ve done this my entire professional career, show up to brand new courses and figure them out. So I haven’t really tapped into anyone’s head about what to do, but I feel really comfortable so far in the past two days.
MICHAEL BALIKER: Collin, we appreciate the time.
COLLIN MORIKAWA: All right. Thanks everyone.