Q. Nice playing today. In our coverage it sounded calm and stress-free. Did the 7-under 66 feel that way to you?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I got on a nice roll on the back nine, and made some putts, hit some really good shots, and you have to do that here. Look, if you're hitting it good you can make a lot of birdies. I think this course has shown that. With the winds, and kind of the swirling, just a little bit off, across, whether it's a little bit hurt, a little bit down, it can be a big factor into the approach shots. But I hit it really good and for the most part pretty stress-free today.
Q. You made your impact on the island on and off the golf course. What is it about this place, your vibe that always seems to mesh so well at the start of the year?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: It's just nice. Even if you do hit a bad shot, you get a little frustrated, you can look out at the ocean pretty much on every hole, so that's something to take on for the rest of the year. But I'm happy with the round I had today and hopefully will continue that for three more days.
Q. You've become a mainstay here at Kapalua. Anything on the island left that you haven't done that you want to do? What's on the bucket list?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: I don't know. I would still love to go ocean fishing, I haven't done that. I'm sure there's some pretty good zip lines out here, so a lot of the fun adrenaline stuff I'm up for.
Q. What is it about this golf course?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: I don't know. No, there's certain courses where you feel like you can birdie every hole. It's not like a forced thing that you can have happen, but I feel like out here, you hit some good approach shots, you can make some putts, and thankfully I've mad a lot of putts throughout the years. Today was just to focus on today and I'll worry about tomorrow when tomorrow happens.
Q. Does the slopes and sort of the variety of lies when you have approach shots, do you enjoy that?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, there's only a couple courses that are like it. Obviously Augusta being one. You forget how sloped this golf course is and some of the shots you're going to have. It's playing pretty soft this year, so you hit a shot on 11 and I've got, or on 17, and I got 5-iron in off a big down slope. You just can't let up because you got to remember what kind of cause and effect, uphill, downhill, where to miss it, and really just be really, really I guess aggressive with what you're committing to, because with the slope and the wind it can just be that much more of a miss when it happens.
Q. You mentioned it's a place you know you can score, but you can't just make that happen. Is that always ever a tricky balance going into a course, a day where you see everyone scoring low, you know it's going to be a pretty low week, and you don't want to force it?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, look, I practice at Summit, and it's a golf course that, on a normal day, you're probably shooting 5-, 6-under. So I think just being able to practice at a course like that, I think we're past the point of trying to force it. I think we're veterans enough and we played enough golf we're not forcing the birdies. But it could be frustrating when you're not. Being 2-under through 8 and I was kind of like, All right, I know there's a few more chances out there, you leave a couple. But that's what I mean, you can make birdies in kind of bunches out here on any part of the golf course, so just knowing that you have nine more holes, 10 more holes, whatever and just continue to give yourself look, hopefully the putts drop and they did today.
Q. Do you feel like your year last year went under the radar at all?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: No, no. I mean, I didn't win. For me it was a solid year, but it comes down to the wins, and that's what we're focused on.
Q. How do you judge yourself? Is it truly a win --
COLLIN MORIKAWA: There's many ways to judge yourself. You look back, and I grade myself on a good season when you win, but this year I'm going to take it one round at a time, one tournament at a time, and really try and do my best. I did that -- everyone does that at the end of the season because it's the end of the season, but how do you have that mentality early on and say, Okay, I've got four days, like, let's put it all out there and then see what happens.
Q. Generally when you feel like your game going into this year is where you should be winning at the rate you want to?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I mean, it's a lot different of a stage than I've been the past, I guess every year I showed up. Every year I kind of played Bahamas and took a handful of days off, a week off, and then you start testing drivers. This year I had eight weeks off where, I was relaxing, but I was working, and just tinkering and having fun, not worrying about, if I have a tournament tomorrow, I got to worry about where the ball's going. So it was nice. It was nice to put a solid first round together.
Q. What do you think the best thing you got from those eight weeks ws?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Just rest. Literally just being fresh. It's nice to have that reset, I haven't had that in, let's call it the six years I've been out here. So it's, hopefully, you know, a good little reset to just keep going for the rest of this year.
Q. Anything from that experimenting and that tinkering that's stuck with you and you're bringing into the new season?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Just, if you watch a lot of my shots today, I was kind of doing this little preset thing before a lot of my iron shots. Just kind of allowing the body to get to where it needs to be in the shot. But, yeah, it's been working, which has been nice. It wasn't a two-day thing and then throw it in the trash.
Q. I know how special this place is for you, but what's the vibe like this year, maybe compared to last year, 17 months now after the fire, Lahaina's on a little bit of a recovery rebuild phase, what's kind of the vibe for you personally?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, it's good to see a few more things open. Obviously the road going past like Front Street is still closed, but the one up top, the highway going past it, it's still a little eery, but I think people are, you're seeing the positive side of it, hopefully, and, look, it's still going to take some work, it's still going to take a lot of fundraising and donations and people just coming through. It's awesome to see just houses slowly being built and people moving back in, even after, unfortunately, what they lost.
Q. You were kind of one of the first guys to get your fellow players to kind of jump along and jump in and help with the recovery. How special is that for you, and if you can tell us what you're doing this year, if you can.
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, no, it's always been a special place, right. This place will always be kind of the home away from home. I haven't done anything yet this year, but doesn't mean I won't. Like I said, this place means a lot, which is just kind of the history going back to my family.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports