Q. The three short irons you put in at the British Open, do they stay in?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: No, they're out immediately and it's going to be something that's only partial to what the grass is like and what the fairways are. It's not just going to be over there in Europe but if we have really firm, tight conditions I just have to figure out why. It's something that the guys at TaylorMade I know are going to be able to figure out, I just want more of a definitive answer of why they work rather than let's just put these in.
Q. This event it's still an individual event but you're playing on a team is there any sort of teamwork that actually goes into this?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: I think the caddies might have helped each other out a little bit more than normal. I realize Patrick just got in yesterday, but we have been playing a bunch of practice round me, JT, Xander, we have hung out at the hotel we have had dinners together, so it's something that you normally don't do but it's just the extra time away that you kind of hang out you might go to the village with a couple of them, they're just memories that no one's going to know about other than us and it's going to be something that builds that Olympic experience even with everything we're dealt this year.
Q. Do you give Patrick notes on the course, he's a competitor?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: He's a competitor but we're still on the same team. He asked a couple very simple questions earlier this morning, but nothing that no one else would know. Patrick's a world-class player, he's been at the top of the world for a long time and I think all of us there's a sense of comfort when you play practice round but we're able to go out on a course like this especially everything's pretty much straight in front of you if you look at the yardage book and make sure you're committed you can play well and I think he's playing all right so far so it's good to see.
Q. I'm sure that you're aware of what is at stake for Sungjae from a life perspective playing this weekend. What's that like to kind of be his playing partner when he's got such a unique circumstance sort of riding on this?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I can't talk about the pressure that he has, I don't know what it's like, but for someone that's playing with him we just try and keep it as normal as possible. You don't know what he's thinking, you don't know if he's thinking about it or he's not thinking about it and you don't want to be the person to bring it up so to talk about anything else and to be honest when we're on the golf course and walking in between shots you're never really talking about golf you might talk about anything other than golf.
Q. You've had to make putts, hit drives on Sundays in majors to win. So you know what that kind of pressure is like and you just said you don't know what he's going through, but can you even imagine it or can you try to compare like what you have been through to something like that?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: I can't. It's something different. I really can't and that's something that he has to answer. I think putting yourself in that spot I wouldn't even know what to think, so yeah.
Q. You mentioned the I heard you say this the break might have helped reset things a little bit. That last shot on 18 it I saw the tongue go in the cheek there. Did you start you were starting to pick up some momentum going into tomorrow?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: The driver the last kind of nine holes it was going left and it's not what I need and that's not what I or how I play so I've got some a couple things to figure out. How to play a little better in the middle of the fairway the next few days, but the swing feels fine so it's something just really smaller maybe it's just a timing thing, but it's something I just go to slope and hopefully wake up and figure it out tomorrow.
Q. I know you talked about this yesterday but playing here in Japan, does that mean anything more to you?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, no, it's very special. It's very special to have the Olympics here and obviously me being half Japanese we miss the fans because the two times I played out here in 2019 for Zozo Championship and Dunlop Phoenix, fans are immaculate, they're amazing, they love the game and they bring so much of that energy and unfortunately today even with a couple collapse it brought you back to that restart of COVID and it just sometimes it's just hard to just get that spark and sometimes the fans that's what they do.
Q. Do you have any extended family here?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: I don't, no.
Q. Are you staying out at the Team USA basketball guys?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: No, we went over, we had that in our activity plan we got that all approved and were able to meet obviously the coaches, a couple guys on the team and just relax. That's what's fun about the Olympics is that I walked around the village yesterday and there's so many other athletes that I'll never know their names probably but you just see and like they're the best at what they do, it's really cool.
Q. (Question about mental health.)
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I mean it's huge, especially what's going on today and I think over the past year and a half since really COVID started and not just COVID but everything else in the world, all these movements. It's, for me it's being able to separate myself from the golf course. You guys all you guys care about is what I do on the golf course and how I play, but there's other things that I got to separate myself go hang out with my girlfriend, hang out with our dog and just have fun. That's what a lot of these veterans that I've noticed especially I look at a guy like Rory, Webb Simpson, they understand what's important in their life and they have families now, they have got things to worry about other than the golf course and sometimes the weight of especially what we do for such a long period of time on the golf course, it can get to people and I think people need to be aware of it, what's going on, absolutely.
Q. Can you talk about the emotions teeing off at the first time with Team USA at the Olympics?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Special moment. Something I'm never going to forget lining up obviously next to Rory and Sungjae. But we are here to win and I got to figure out how to play better golf. It's a cool couple second owned but after that I had to go tee off and yanked one left right behind a tremendous and it's not ideal so I got to figure out a couple things for tomorrow.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports