Q. Collin, how would you describe the day today?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Greed got the best of me. 9, can't miss it over there and can't leave it in the bunker. 11, just tried to hit too perfect of a shot. It's not like at that point I was trying to press. I knew where I stood.
Yeah, it's just can't do that. In the past I haven't done it, but kind of where the game's at. You kind of find your little stride.
We put a lot of pieces of the puzzle together this week, but after watching Scottie this week, I know what to do if I really want to close this gap on what he's doing and how impressive he's playing.
Q. What is he doing?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: I mean, everything. He drives the ball plenty, plenty long, well past me. Hits his irons obviously spectacular. Keeps it simple. Makes the putts when he needs to. If he doesn't, still has plenty of chances. And just never put himself in trouble.
Q. Does it make you feel like you can't make mistakes?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: No, no, no. Look, none of my putts were dropping on the first eight holes or seven holes today. If I had two or three of those putts drop. I thought I was hitting good putts, and I thought at one point they'd start dropping and they didn't. If I make a couple of those, it changes a lot of things. Who knows how the ending would have finished out, but that's just what you have to do when you're in a final round at a major championship starting the day one back.
In the past I've made these putts, and today they just didn't go in. Unfortunately, made two doubles, and you can't play with two doubles especially against someone who's not making mistakes.
Q. You've played with Scottie for a while now, even before college. When did you first know that he had something like this?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: He's always been -- he was always one year older than me, but he's always been the top of his class. He was Rolex Junior Player of the Year when we were young. In our Wyndham Cup days, he was one of the best players out there. He always had it in him.
In college he had this weird little period, I think, where it just wasn't quite to his standards and to what I thought he would continue, but I knew it was still there.
Obviously you saw that a few years later, Korn Ferry Tour, obviously making a splash out here, and what he's doing now for the past kind of couple years, let's call it since that first Ryder Cup we were both in. It's always been there.
. Look, today's a day where I fully believe that I still have it, and I know I still have it. I've just got to keep digging a little bit deeper and really just be strong with myself because I know that -- you know, I made two errors, and that cost me the tournament. I still would have had to make some birdies, but it cost me at least some momentum and kind of staying around the lead.
Q. How big is the gap between Scottie and everyone else?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: The way he's playing right now, it's impressive. The distance he's hitting it and how good he's hitting his irons. When I feel like I'm on my irons, I could be anywhere in the fairway and be comfortable. But it's also a difference of if he's hitting pitching -- we made a joke, JJ and I, on 5 today. I hit an okay drive, and he was 25 past me. He probably hit 8 or 7-iron, and I hit 5-iron.
It's a pin location -- especially on a course like this, it's a pin location where height helps. That's just one extra hole -- we both made par, but he was able to stop the ball a little quicker.
It's impressive what he's doing throughout the bag. From junior golf, he was always a great short game player. His chipping and putting was always great. This whole putting-majig he was going through, I knew he was going to get out of. But to see what he's doing with his irons is crazy impressive because he's hitting every shot, he's moving both directions, and it's something that I admired that hopefully I can get my game back to that kind of spot.
Q. What was the joke you guys made?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: No, I was joking with JJ, he joked it's probably a little easier to stop a 7-iron or 8-iron than the skinny 5-iron that I hit. But you play with what you got.
Q. Collin, did you find yourself getting into a little speed chase a bit because you always preferred accuracy?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: There's only a couple holes out here that hurt me. I still feel like out here I can hit my shots and it is what it is. Yeah, it would be nice to hit it farther, but I think with the game I had, if I can just tighten a few things up, like it wasn't that far off. I mean, I finished, what, seven shots back. I think it was a little closer mentally for me.
Q. Looking forward, what kind of spark does this give you?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Hopefully a lot. This has been a weird year, but I saw a lot of good this week. Today was the first day where I really just mentally kind of gave a couple away. Sometimes it happens. The few times I've been kind of near the lead in majors, I've performed pretty well.
Today I think it's just a balance of everything between how the game feels and where the mental state is. It's just kind of getting back in that groove. Today was a real -- this week was a real big thing for me, and I think I'm going to use this a lot kind of in this next little stretch of golf, especially since majors, they all come one right after another.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports