THE MODERATOR: We would like to welcome Collin Morikawa to the interview room here at the RBC Canadian Open. Collin, about to make your 11th start of the season and first since the PGA Championship. A lot has changed in your life. Fill us in since having your first born and with fatherhood.
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, a lot of people on tour have given me advice, a lot of friends. And just a different perspective on life, I think. I'm just enjoying every day. I can stare at a camera, I can stare at my little one just non-stop and kind of forget about what else is going on. I know at the same time I still have a job to do when I'm out here and that's what's great kind of being back. But at the same time when I'm out there playing you're kind of playing a little bit differently, your mind's in a different spot. I think I'm a lot more positive out there and hopefully I can kind of just allow my body to relax and go out and play golf and enjoy it again.
THE MODERATOR: Any specific advice that's resonated that maybe players have given you?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: I kind of took it for granted on the sleep thing. And that's a real thing. So I won't push it on my wife that I'm getting some great sleep out here. But your body gets used to taking 50-minute naps and learning how to run off that.
THE MODERATOR: Making your first start back since 2019 at this event, but first time seeing TPC Toronto. Just got done playing the pro-am, what are your initial thoughts of the course here?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, it's good. There's a mixture of this golf course. The front nine that I played this morning starts off with a lot of dogleg lefts and the wind's off the left this week, with fairways sloping left-to-right, so you have to really work your ball. Greens are really soft, they're pretty slow. I think with some rain forecasted the next couple days and with a lot of wind you have to just be able to control your golf ball with spin. Approach shots are going to be really key. Some high rough, fescue, some bushes come into play really quickly, so you're going to have to be able to play out of the fairway. I think fairways are going to be really important this week. A lot of guys are going to be able to attack a lot of pins out here just because of the softness of the greens. But for the most part it's going to be can you get yourself in the fairway. From there you're going to have a lot of mid irons to be able to attack some of these pins.
THE MODERATOR: With the newborn just in the past two weeks, what's it been like practice-wise? What have you been able to do get out on the course leading up to this week?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Not much (laughing), which is kind of good. I left the PGA Championship uncomfortable in a way. I've been grinding this kind of back injury since THE PLAYERS. It still hadn't felt that comfortable. So it was nice to take a full reset. And just focus on other things going on in life. I think after that I've just been able to relax a little bit more. There's still a trust factor that I'm looking for that I'm trying to find this week, I think, going into tomorrow and into next week essentially. But it's a lot better of a swing than I've been putting on and that's for me a positive thing. I think when the body fully is able to kind of have that last little puzzle piece of fully relaxing, I think the game's going to be exactly how I want. I still feel like I'm hit great shots when I need to. But just the consistency-wise I think if I can build that into this week it will be a great boost into next week.
THE MODERATOR: With a month off from the tour was it truly relaxing or were you able to tune in, watch the Memorial the from the couch?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I watched quite a bit of golf. It's frustrating when you watch a lot of golf when you know you could be playing these events. Especially at a course that I love. I love Muirfield Village, I love the tournament, Memorial. I watched honestly a good amount of the U.S. Women's Open at Riviera, which was fun to see. So I've watched a lot of golf. I wouldn't say it's full relax, feet on the couch, but it was a good break in the middle of the season that you don't really get too often. So it feels like I haven't played that much this year and that's partly by design and partly just with how things have kind of played out. But I'm excited to kind of finish off the season hopefully on a good note.
THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions.
Q. We obviously had Ryan Fox in here a little bit earlier, and he was talking about some players don't like to play before a major, some do. What are your thoughts on that?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I've had good results both ways. I think it depends how your game's feeling, if you played the major golf course before, the schedule leading up to it. There's a big mix on what guys like to do. I think you can do it either way. For me, I look at major championships and, honestly, I don't prep that differently during those weeks. Some guys do, and I think that creates a scheduling conflict with playing a different tournament before. Ideally sometimes you like when the conditions are similar to how you're going to be playing the following week, but it's not always perfect like that. For me, taking three weeks off it's nice to get another rep in essentially to see how the game is trending. Guys find that ebb and flow throughout their games. Sometimes you need a week for it to get there, sometimes that week at home is that full reset. It all depends what your schedule looks like coming up to those majors.
Q. And what do you think of the strength of the field this week at TPC Toronto?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: I think it's great. I haven't been back since 2019. This was my first start ever as a pro. It's nice to be back. I think looking at the field this week I think we got a great field, a few top-10 players in the world, major champions winner in Aaron Rai this year. So it's, I think it's great to see. I think guys like coming out here and I've talked about it with a few guys yesterday. At the end of the day, it's still a National Open. And I've never been able to win one, I would love to win one, just because looking back you can't take away from that history. So watching on TV the last few years, watching the little rink, the little hockey rink area, hopefully we can pull off some good shots this week.
Q. Brian Rolapp has made public a plan to have a two-track system on the PGA TOUR. He hasn't gone as far as to say which tournaments would go where, but at every event there is players that have a tie to a community or a tie to a sponsor and they would really like to play there no matter what. And this event in particular, if it were on Track 1 it couldn't really be an Open. If it were on Track 2, there's a lot of Track 1 players that show up here every year. Has that sort of issue come up much in discussions and how could top players navigate it and do you think it could hurt some events?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I'll be honest, I haven't really been in any of the discussions I've kind of been away from that. I'm not on any of the boards or PAC meetings. I talk to a lot of the guys, but it's just more for me to get as informed as I can as a player and then the Tour's great about that. Look, I don't know what to expect in say two years, right, when things are trying to be implemented. What I do know is that hopefully it's all for the betterment of the players and of the fans at the same time. I think when you see 70-man fields it's great as someone that's in it. At the same time, if you're 71, it sucks being outside. And I think we love seeing the difference of and the stories that come about of a guy that no one looked at the leaderboard that pops up maybe because he was no one to be looked at until that week. So I'm not a part of those discussions, I can't really talk about it, I wouldn't know as much as you do at the same time. I think you kind of wait and see. At the end of the day, good golf is going to take care of it all. I think as a National Open, the Open idea might be, maybe it's time to evolve what the idea of an Open is. Just because 120 guys are the best players in the world come out here and try and win the Canadian Open, say the RBC Canadian Open, that's still meaningful, right? Unfortunately, if that takes a way from a couple spots, I think it could better the field. We talk about the field here, who knows, maybe you have one of the strongest fields in two, three, four years. So there's a lot of give and there's a lot of take. I think we have to evolve and I think that's what we're doing, but at the same time respect the history of what the Canadian Open was and has been.
Q. How are you feeling physically and where is your game at right now?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, no, I'm feeling better, like I said. I think -- I talked about it a few minutes ago, I wish the body was a little bit better, but it's just building in this trust. It's going to take some time. It's going to be hopefully tomorrow where everything feels a little bit more relaxed. But I'm still a little bit on edge just because I don't want it to happen again. I'm doing the right steps to prevent it, but when it happens like that it's in a sense a little bit of trauma that you just kind of have to deal with.
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