Q. Nice playing today. Let's talk about that five-birdie stretch on the back nine. Birdies were falling for the entire field today. What was working for you?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: I just hit some quality shots and gave myself a run of birdie opportunities. I felt like for the entire back nine I had birdie looks. Obviously, I made a handful, but it was just nice to see a couple drop and hit also, you know, a couple close on 14 and 15.
Q. Yesterday you talked about practicing out of Summit where you got to shoot 5-, 6-under every day, and not necessarily being fazed when everyone is going low. How do you keep yourself patient when you're playing with Patrick, who had a chance at 10-under, Sam is going super low, and just staying in your own boat?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I mean, when you look at the leaderboard, and I'm through six holes and I'm even par, and guys are lapping the field already. But like I said, it's not telling myself I got to be patient. I just know this golf course and I know at any point you can kind of go on a little stretch of birdies, and I just had to keep playing my game. The game felt solid enough to shoot a low score and thankfully it came on that back half of the round today.
Q. Your new preset iron routine, when did you develop that and put that into play and what are you hoping to achieve with it?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: I messed around with it probably a few weeks ago. Look, I've gone through a couple injuries with the back, just tweaking it a little bit here. I think when I try and -- not play through it, but your body's used to certain positions, and we do so much repetition with our bodies, that sometimes you just build bad patterns. I just had to just tell myself that I can kind of rotate and stay in that position and that's all it's really doing. I'm not thinking about it. It's saying, okay, you're safe to go there, just let it go. And it's been nice to see the cut's been back a little bit more with a little bit more space.
Q. When did your back hurt?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: No, no, no, like, last -- like, '23, yeah. I played a week after in L.A., and you feel fine, right? But it's just back of your mind, you kind of stray away from it sometimes. It's just saying, okay, you know, you can build space, the left hip can go back, turn, and that it was just then be able to use my hands for the cut.
Q. Did it make you afraid to rotate? And when you don't rotate, do you get handsy?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: If you don't rotate and you kind of slide or you kind of stall, right? You have to use your hands and you have to kind of rotate and flip your hands in a way, and that's just not me. For me, it's turn hard and hold the face. So all of last year there were good parts, but it still didn't feel like I could just kind of throw darts, and we're slowly getting back to that, which is nice.
Q. 7 and 8, was that throwing darts?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Today?
Q. Yeah.
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, 7 was pretty good. 8, pretty good, yeah.
Q. (No Microphone.)
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah. Yeah, no, exactly. The good shots are always going to be good, right? For us, it's the bad ones that no one really can tell. It's how do you, like, dial those in, and I felt like through this past two months, I've kind of been able to work on that and saying, okay, the misses are getting a little bit tighter. You kind of know where they're going to be. When you play like that, you're a little bit more free.
Q. You've played this course enough to know that it feels like you're getting lapped. You have that 14 through 18 stretch, not including 17, but is that how it was today?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, look, I know guys are going to take it low. I like to look at leaderboards and I know by the time I start tomorrow, someone's probably going to have the lead, someone else, before Hideki and I go out. But it's just like I said. I feel like from hole 1 all the way through 18, I can make birdies and with that mindset, it's not about rushing, like, getting to 5-under by 9. If it comes, it comes.
Today, I just didn't get off to the hottest start and just kept grinding, kept giving myself chances. You make a few, you get a little momentum, and you got a couple par-5s coming in. It would be nice to birdie 18, hopefully, once later this week. That would be good.
Q. Rahm used to laugh at us when we question about a slow start when he parred 1 through 4. Not easy holes?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: The pins on 1 and 2 today were pretty tough. You look at the leaderboard and we're on 2 and a lot of the guys are through 9 and they're 6-, 7-under par, so okay, there's some work, but like I said, there's ebbs and flows to this golf course, you got to just keep getting at it. When you start forcing things, bad things happen.
Q. Do you think one of these years they will ever turn 5 into a 4 and wouldn't you, if you made par there as a 5, wouldn't you lose your mind?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I mean I've done it. I've definitely done it. I've definitely done it. No, no, I made birdie today. No, I think depending what the wind is, if it's downwind, yeah, it's an easy shorter par-5, but it's an awkward par-4 because where the tees are I mean guys might have 4-iron into a green that you're never really, I mean, yeah, you can, but there's no need, it doesn't really matter. I like it as a 5.
Q. You hit some long irons close and hit a lot of wedges close. Is there one that is more satisfying than the other?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: I think when you guess the wind correctly, I think it's still, today we started with the wind that was into that we never really thought and then we finished with the same wind, kind of this west, northwest wind. Wind's all over the place. It was even more today. A lot more down, but just when you guess the wind right it just feels like you accomplished something because all the practice it was kind of blowing 20, 25, and today like I'm on the first hole and it's blowing in, but I hit it 40 feet past because you're just not used to the lightness of the wind. It's just being able to guess. I think the weekend is going to be pretty down, so just being able to guess correctly out there.
Q. What did you do on 17?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: 7-iron. Obviously I wasn't aiming there but it was a nice solid shot, a little downhill lie, in the air J.J. said go, I thought it was perfect. It was. The player's always right.
Q. When you think of tournaments that you haven't been able to win where does this one stand?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: They're all the same. I mean, there's a lot of meaning when you do win 'em, I don't put an emphasis for me to come out and try harder. I think sometimes when you have a connection it helps you just relax, for me, whether it's here or L.A., like just have a little bit more support. But I don't try harder just because I have that connection. So, it means more after the fact, I don't many could out and say, I got to try harder on holes 1 through 18 because there is a relationship.
Q. A little bit of Lahaina is open, is the portion where your grandfather's store --
COLLIN MORIKAWA: No, it would have been, I would have to look on a map on an old map, no, it's a lot farther down. It's like, you know, if we guess where Front Street is, it's kind of like center of Front Street from like north to south right down the street. I think it's still pretty closed right after the Safeway right there, I think.
Q. Some early discussions rumblings about overhauling the format for the TOUR Championship. Do you like the way it is now, would you like to see it changed? And what would you do?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: I don't mind it. I know some guys don't like it at all the way it is right now. I don't mind it how it is. I think it plays out to, you know, yeah, you could have a really good season like Scottie did and win it or not win it, right, as we have seen the past couple years. I did hear about it briefly, I kind of read up on it, I don't have New York times so it kind of scrolled me out after the first paragraph. I do, I know the concept of what was brought up, I don't know how deep it's gone through the TOUR and how true it is. I think there's a better way than what I saw or what I've heard, but you know.
Q. Do you know what that better way is?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: No. But what I sawing there's a better way. I just think the way I've heard it and the way, from what I've heard, right, from one person, I think there's a better way to play it out than what I heard. But I don't know what's set in stone or not. Whatever it is you just got to live with it.
Q. But I can't imagine there would ever be a perfect way?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: No, golf's too hard. Golf is too hard. Golf is normally played over four rounds, it's hard to play, you know, one versus one and say you're the better player, because day by day it's not about just today, it's not about just tomorrow, it's an accumulation of your four rounds. But when you put together a season, it's tough, because you can say one season was better than another just because of one tournament that all comes down to, right. You got to look at the whole. But sometimes golf needs that pressure and you need away to put it out there, that's why I think there's a middle ground. I think the one now can be improved, what I heard.
Q. Do you like the head-to-head concept whether it's medal match?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: That's my problem, like I said, one day can you say, you know, if you were whatever seed and you lose and you shot 5-under and you lost to a 7-under, can you say my season was worth a 20 or it would be probably like a 16th place? Or a T-16 all the way through? Tough, right.
Q. Can't imagine the times you went to Austin you ever played the 55 seed and thought you had it in the bag.
COLLIN MORIKAWA: No, never. Never. And you don't. That's the thing. You show up here, we could have a, we could have every member of the PGA TOUR show up here this week and like I said, anyone can win. That's what's great about golf. So that's my thing. I think there's a better way, I don't know where we're at with that.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports