THE MODERATOR: Collin, welcome. Delighted to have you. Great round today, 69. For the last two years, you've had top 10 finishes. Tell us about how you feel about your performance so far.
COLLIN MORIKAWA: It's been good. If you asked me at the beginning of the week I'd be 1 back heading into Sunday, I would have taken that any time. You give yourself a chance with 18 holes left, that's all you can really do and everything that you practice for. It all comes together tomorrow hopefully. But it's going to be a grind, and I'm looking forward to that.
Q. Given your impressive performance, I think nobody doubts that you'll win another major. Do you think the time has come this time?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: I mean, I hope so. Look, tomorrow, anything could happen. There's still a lot of guys right beneath us. We don't know what conditions are going to be like. The greens are getting firmer than I've ever seen out here. So it's going to play a lot different from kind of what we've seen the first two rounds.
You know, at the end of the day, I know where my head is at. I know what I need to focus on, and I know what needs to be done if I want to close it off tomorrow.
Q. The putting switch, what inspired it, and have you switched putters mid-tournament before?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Plenty of times. College was a fun one. I came into this week not putting well or not feeling comfortable with the putter that I had in my hands. Went full 180, switched to the mallet, switched to the Spider, and was feeling great, to be honest.
I felt really, really good. Felt better than I've kind of felt all year. But sometimes you don't know how it's going to feel in the tournament. Through that Thursday and then Friday morning round, it was just for me to finish the round, like I just wanted to get the putter out of my hands because I couldn't get comfortable with it.
And thankfully I had a backup, something -- a copy of what I've putted with in the past, pretty much the past year and a half. Felt like old times and nice to have that in the back again.
Didn't make the putts I necessarily wanted today. Missed a few out there, but everything still feels comfortable. That's the biggest thing is feeling comfortable going into tomorrow.
Q. When you've been in the mix in major championships, and then it goes away for a while, as it does with everyone, how much does it ache to want to get that feeling back?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, it sucks. I mean, I think the last time I was pretty close was probably the U.S. Open in '22 at Brookline. And, you know, they are just different. You don't -- as a person and as a golfer, you don't know how you're going to react in those situations.
Thankfully I've already been able to win two, so I can kind of go back on those experiences and just take that and take that experience into tomorrow.
Doesn't mean tomorrow is going to be a perfect day. Doesn't mean tomorrow is going to go exactly as I planned. But I know how to prep, at least, leading up tomorrow. And you do so much work to get to this spot that, you know, it's really just, can you stick to what you kind of prep for. And I think I've got a pretty good plan, so hopefully we can execute it tomorrow.
Q. You're the only player under par for each of the first three rounds. You seem comfortable out there. Can we assume you're back to your 2020, 2021 form? Is that how you feel?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: It's early on. Hopefully tomorrow for the sake of me, yes. But it's a work-in-progress. Golf, there's so many ups and there's so many downs, right. You don't quite know where you're at every single day, and you just do the best you can to really wake up and just enjoy where you're at.
It's been a struggle the past few years. And, you know, hasn't been fun, but it's been fun to learn about the game and learn about myself.
Yeah, the past few days, I've seen some shots that I haven't seen in quite some time, and that's really, really exciting for me because it's just being able to just, you know, point-and-shoot and find the ball, and hopefully you've got a birdie chance.
Q. I read about the putter change, and apparently there was some swing tweaks earlier this week. Is this you generally? Seems like a lot of changes coming into a big event.
COLLIN MORIKAWA: It is. But sometimes you're searching, and I had to search. You have to find something. You know, where my game was last week, if I took it out here, first few days, I probably wouldn't be here. I probably wouldn't be playing today. So you have to find something.
Part of it, you know, I look back at a lot of my tournaments I've played, sometimes you search, and you're not searching, but you're just trying to find a feel. That's all it is. Once you find a feel, you can repeat and just put it on repeat all throughout the week.
That's kind of what I've stuck to, this one feel in my golf swing, and hopefully we can just put that under pressure tomorrow and just continue that kind of shot-shaping that I like.
Q. We're kind of on schedule here in a traditional Masters where now we have a late tee time tomorrow and you talk about your plan. How much of your plan is thinking about the traditional final round holes, and how much of it is just checking out and forgetting about everything that's going on and relaxing?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Probably just stick to -- I'll probably wake up tomorrow and look at it and briefly glance through it. You just don't know what to expect out here. I mean, today, as the round was going through, you could just tell the greens were just completely changing. Tomorrow it's going to be even that much more bouncy, fast.
Like I said, I've never seen the course like this. It was kind of leading up to that as the week started. We got some rain Thursday, but right now is probably exactly where Augusta wants it. And, you know, I think some holes, some approach shots might have to be tweaked based on where I am and what clubs I'm hitting versus, you know, previous years for me.
Q. You've got the toughest task in golf tournament, which is trying to chase down Scottie right now. Is there any part of you that will look at it as, I've got to beat him, or is it you're just going to be focused and in your own bubble tomorrow?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: You know, looking at the leaderboard, there's still quite a handful of guys beneath us, and I think the conditions are going to be pretty mellow for the most part compared to what we've seen all week. Probably similar to today.
So, you know, I think it's going to depend how the first five to nine holes go. But, yeah, look, Scottie is the No. 1 player in the world for a reason, and what he's done over the past few years is incredible.
But at the end of the day, it doesn't scare me. I still know that at my best and at what I truly believe I can do. I saw a little glimpse of that early on today. And just didn't hit the shots I needed to. Didn't really make the putts on the back nine, or else I would be even with him or 1-up.
It happens. It's golf. But thankfully I've got one more day. Item got 18 more holes to figure it out and hopefully, you know, play some really great golf.
Q. Normally you guys can start learning this golf course on Thursday and be sort of dialed in by today. Did the two days of high winds deny you that opportunity and you're really sort of discovering what this golf course is for the first time today?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: You know, my first Masters was 2020. So every year has been rain, weather delays, softness. Every year kind of by Sunday, you start to see it get bouncy. But like I said, today is the firmest I've ever seen it.
So, no, it's -- I know what the golf course has in front of me. It's not like I don't know where the slopes are and what's out there. It's just being able to plot yourself around a golf course that is quite different than where we started Thursday, Thursday afternoon.
Q. Are you able to elaborate on what you worked on in your swing this week, and what was the shot today that was one of the shots that you talked about that kind of reminded you of old times?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: No, I'm not going to let you know what I'm doing. Need it to work at least one more day.
I would say, you know, the fifth hole today, I hit a drive down the middle at about 192, I believe, to that top pin right over the hill. I mean, just an impossible pain location. And it was a little downwind, a little off our right, choked down on a 6-iron and hit it just absolutely perfect. Landed right next to the pin and rolled out to 20 feet.
And there's just a shot I haven't seen in quite some time and had that freedom, and I'm very happy about that. Sometimes distances aren't going to be exact, and today I was a little bit off, especially as the back nine was kind of going on.
But that's just a small adjustment of just figuring out where we are trying to land or the wind. The wind out here is literally gusting. To have those shots to draw back on and to have a lot of shots beforehand in the previous few years, I feel very, very comfortable. And like I said, I've still got to execute the shots. So tomorrow, we'll see if I can execute.
Q. How long do you feel like you've been searching, and what was the level of your confidence heading into this week?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: I've been searching probably since the beginning of '22. Got back from Dubai and something didn't feel right. You know, some weeks are better than others. Some weeks, you find something, you hope it works and you hope it lasts for weeks and months, and sometimes it doesn't.
But to have that full freedom for a nice period of time, it's been a while. But you know, at the end of the day -- what was the second part? Sorry.
Q. Level of confidence?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: It was a little iffy. I'll be honest, it was a little iffy coming in on Monday. But I spent a lot of time on the range on Monday, and JJ and I gave ourselves a high-five midway through our session because we found something that made sense in our heads, worked. And that's the thought we've continued throughout the rest of this week.
At the end of the day, when you tee it up on Thursday, especially knowing the conditions we were going to have, you throw everything out the window and you've just got to hit shots. If you're able to repeat something and you at least know where it's coming out of, at least you know where the start line is and relatively where it's going to curve, you can play shots.
You know, for the past month or so, I've just been kind of been hitting and hitting aimlessly, and that's kind of hard, but we found something. Maybe the confidence wasn't at the top, top tier that I've had in the past. But in no way did I believe or tell myself that I couldn't win because I fully believe that I could do it.
Q. Wondering more broadly what you're working on on the greens with Steve and how that's coming along?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Not much, to be honest. You know, every time we check the stroke on mechanics and all that stuff, it looks as good as it ever has. So that's really just being able to see the line, see the speed and just stay creative and stay kind of -- create that artwork out there.
That's the biggest thing out here especially. I've been using AimPoint for just under a year now, and once you get to some putts out here, you just can't use them. It's all feel. You've just got to see the putts.
I hit some poor-ish putts speed-wise, but that's going to be good experience for going into tomorrow knowing how it's going to play.
Q. I'm not sure if you did this on the eve of winning the PGA Championship, thinking of holding the Wanamaker, or on the eve of winning The Open, holding the Claret Jug, but tomorrow morning will you allow yourself to think about having a green jacket slipped over your shoulders?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Look, it always crosses your mind. If it doesn't cross your mind, I don't know what the hell your mind is thinking about. You're purposely trying to block it out. For me, I have to allow that to come.
But you also have to allow yourself and learn how to think about and be present and think about where you're at, right. So, you know, yeah, I mean, when I started birdie, birdie, birdie, a hundred percent I thought about what could this round be like. What could this be.
But my head always goes to a million different places, and you just have to know that when you do step into your shot, all you're thinking about is that one shot.
So, yeah, I'm not going to say that it doesn't cross my mind. We are here on a Saturday night, and I'm one back. I'm very excited about tomorrow, and I have to take that and use that to my advantage and just be able to really, when I step in -- when I grab that club out of the bag, be able to execute those golf shots as best as I can, which is not thinking about the jacket.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Collin. Best of luck.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports