THE MODERATOR: Collin, congratulations on winning the Workday Charity Open, your second PGA TOUR title, quite a different fashion from the first one that you had earlier in the season. You made it very exciting for all of us. Just take some steps through the 17th hole in particular and the playoff.
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I mean, being three shots back to Justin Thomas, I know I just had to give it to him and I had to make a lot of birdies from the start, get off to a great start, and we did that, and then kind of middle of the round he started picking it up, he started making some birdies, and by 15 I found myself three back with three to go, but I knew I was hitting really good shots, just had to put myself in the fairway. Had a good look on 16, hit a really good iron shot, missed that putt. I hit it exactly where I wanted. We go to 17 and I had probably one of the best breaks and bounces for my approach shot, pushed it right with an 8-iron, lands kind of right on the green on the edge of the fringe and just kicked straight left to about nine feet, and I knew that was kind of the opportunity I needed to at least give myself a shot coming down that 18th hole.
You know, I felt confident, hit a good putt, made that. Go to 18, hit a decent iron shot, get away with my par putt on 18. But throughout the playoff, I got a lot more comfortable, especially after that playoff in Colonial. I felt a lot more comfortable now, but I felt way more comfortable after making that birdie putt on the first playoff hole. That was huge. I had to make it after he made it.
You know, from there on, I just knew, hit fairways, hit greens, put the pressure on him. He obviously had a chance in that second hole playoff, but I'm happy.
Q. What were you thinking after J.T. made that 50-footer? It must have been a tough one for you. Did you say anything specific to yourself or what was your thought process there?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: I mean, I figured I just had to make it. Obviously I wanted to put in really good speed, but it didn't really change much, other than if I missed, we're done. It's all over. I had my caddie come in, read the putt with me. We agreed on a line, hit it perfect exactly how we wanted, and really helped that J.T. had that putt about halfway in between during regulation. So I kind of knew what it did at the end. So as long as I got my line started on there, we had a good shot at making it. But Justin is an awesome player. He plays his butt off even with those two bogeys at the beginning. He's someone that has kind of helped me just get comfortable. That was my first dinner with him in Canada last year, and he just made things a lot easier for me. Props to him. He's an awesome player, awesome dude, as well.
Q. I just wanted to ask you a little bit about that dinner, as well. Was it surreal to be going head-to-head with him, with Justin today, after how he's helped you?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say he's like been there every practice round for me, but making things easier and just telling me when we had that dinner just over a year ago, just telling me if you're good enough, you're going to get out here at some point. Everyone's path is different. You don't know how quick or how slow it's going to get there, but if you're good enough you're going to get here. At that point already in my head I felt good enough already, and I just had to have some starts and opportunities and obviously play well, but just have those starts to show everything and everyone what I had.
You know, to be in a playoff with Justin three shots back, it's awesome, because being three shots to start the day, there weren't many guys I'd say that really had a chance to make a run for it, but I got off to a really good start today, and that's what I needed. I had to get off to a good start. I didn't do that yesterday, but I knew that front nine was kind of where I could make a lot of birdies, and I did for the most part.
Q. You almost had two aces. You had two that were like right there. What was that like? Were you thinking, boy, that would have been nice to get one of those? And what does it do for you to -- not just win in a playoff but win in a playoff against a player of Justin's caliber.
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, the ace, I really thought I might have had it on 4. I mean, I knew it had some heat, but I hit a really good 6-iron, hit the pin, and what are you going to do, when it's running that fast you just kind of get lucky and hope it kind of stays within there.
I have to apologize to Viktor on 12, I took his tee, and I was just not thinking. I was just seeing 8-iron at the pin, so thankfully he chipped in for par because I would have felt a little bad if he didn't.
You know, to go up against Justin in a playoff, he wasn't going to give it to me, that's for sure, and he definitely didn't, for the start. Making that 50-footer on that first playoff hole, just forcing me to make something. And then we go to the second playoff hole and he's 35, 40 yards behind me and he sticks it to whatever, 10, 12 feet.
I just knew I had to keep putting on the pressure. I couldn't give away any shots. If I just hit quality shots and you slowly wear him down, slowly give yourself a chance to make birdie, and at one point hopefully they'll drop, and if not I got a fortunate break with Justin having to chip out there.
Q. I'm curious on 15 where you're blocked out by the trees, what were you trying to do there on that second shot, and after kind of that error compounded itself and then you see J.T. make that eagle, how do you not let that kind of just become a moment that the whole thing basically --
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, it was tough because I mean, I had a really good eagle look on 14. I hit a great drive to, I don't know, 15 feet, so I was trying on that second shot to get it out to the second fairway where Viktor was. Maybe not that far, but the lie was just brutal. It was one of the worst lies I had all week. Kind of questioned myself before I hit it whether it was going to be enough with an 8-iron, but it happens. I don't know if it was lucky or unlucky to end up where it was on that upslope, but it gave me a chance to be aggressive, hit it up in the air and land soft.
But once he made that eagle, I knew I had to make my par putt. If I didn't make that par putt, I might not be sitting here right now because a three-shot cushion with three to go is a lot different than four with three to go, and then him hitting somewhat of a poor tee shot on 16, I knew this was my window of opportunity, and I thought it was going to be a two-shot swing if I made my birdie putt.
But like I said, just the same concept of what I did in the playoff, I had to keep putting pressure on him to hit good shots. These finishing holes aren't easy and you have to really hit your shots. But I thought I did that. Big birdie on 17, and then 18 get away with a par, he makes bogey, and there we are in that playoff.
Q. If someone wasn't able to watch today, close family friend, your girlfriend, whatever, and you called her and she said, how did it go today, what would you say? How would you explain that?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: It would be "amazing," that's how the day went. It was a long, long 21 holes. I'd explain that. But it was a grind. I knew from the start nothing was going to be given today. Viktor -- watching Viktor drive the ball is amazing. I think it almost helps my game because he just stripes it. So watching that is always nice to see off the tee.
But I knew both of them weren't going to let up. They were going to make a bunch of birdies. Viktor started off very strong. Even though Justin made a couple bogeys at the start, he was going to figure it out, and he did, with making I think four birdies in a row from the 8th hole to 12 -- or 8 to 11. So you know, I talked to my girlfriend, she couldn't watch much of it, but she's excited, I'm excited, and I'm just really happy.
Q. Just tell her you two-putted from 10 feet for par and won. Your reputation that you've developed in a short year, a lot has been just consistency. How important to you is it to kind of get a win to go with the consistent play, especially a win against not so much a full field but there's somewhat a stigma against opposite field events, to do it here?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: You know, it's huge. I'm obviously trying to be very consistent, but I also want to give myself a chance to win, and then you've got to close it out, and then you pile on more after the other because if I just finished 10th every single week, no one would be talking about me, other than here's another top 10. So it's huge.
This is a huge kind of stepping-stone. We got No. 1 out of the way, we got No. 2, let the gates just open and let's just keep going because obviously it was a tough loss at Colonial a month ago, but I learned a lot. I learned a lot from last week or a week and a half ago at Travelers after my missed cut. This is just more positives, more learning for me, and I've got to go back to, okay, what did I do great, what did I do wrong this week, how can I get better, move on to next week and make a lot of birdies.
Q. Collin, you've had a tremendous amount of success already in your professional career. I'm sure they've told you more wins than missed cuts. Are you a little bit surprised at all? I know you had an unbelievable amateur career, but are you at all surprised how quickly the success has come?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: You know, I'm not surprised. But I didn't expect myself to do all this. I just set goals for myself, and I had these things that I wanted to accomplish. Last summer was all about earning status, getting on the PGA TOUR, doing something in that manner, get to finals, whatever it was. This year, we set new goals, I set new goals with my coach at the beginning of the year to kind of look back at what we did great last year. This is going to be my first full season this year, and what we can do.
You know, it's not a surprise. It's just a lot of belief in myself that I could do this, and like I said, I go back to being comfortable. Comfortable I think is the best word for a lot of these guys out here because they've been out here for many years. They've been out here, they know the courses, they know where to hit it, and for me it's getting as comfortable as I can as quickly as I can. I felt a lot more comfortable in this first hole playoff than I did in that last playoff at Colonial, but I still wouldn't say I'm at where I felt perfectly fine. By the second playoff hole today I felt very comfortable, and I knew let's just play some golf. That's where I want to be everywhere I am, no matter what situation.
You know, it's all still a learning experience for me, but I'm going to chalk this up to that board and look back at it later down the road when I need some emphasis on what I did well, what I didn't, and overall it was just an amazing week.
Q. I have to ask about the first putt on 18; did your heart just skip a beat?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I guess it was my second putt, it was for par. Yeah, that my heartbeat must have skipped a billion times. We talk about comfort; just a bad putt. But that's when it really shouldn't happen. But thankfully it caught the hole. The hole was very kind to me. You know, when you get an opportunity like that, you move on, look at the next hole.
Same thing when J.T. missed his putt on the second playoff hole. Brand new, doesn't matter what happened before, we've hit really good shots, we've hit really good putts, let's just keep doing that, and we did that at the end.
Q. Where are you kind of in that process of maybe controlling your adrenaline at the end of rounds and becoming a good finisher, kind of becoming a pro, someone who's used to this stuff?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, definitely. I think it's improved a lot over the past month. Colonial was huge for me. And Colonial I didn't really feel it until the playoff. This I kind of felt it on that par putt. But like I said, every experience you get, it just helps. No matter whether it's good or bad, it's just always going to pile on and it's always going to help as long as you learn from it. So thankfully we got away with this one.
But I think the next time something in that same manner happens or I've got a par putt to make, I'm going to feel a lot better down the stretch.
Q. You're obviously back here for the Memorial. What are your thoughts on that? Obviously it's been a long time since one course has held two tournaments back-to-back.
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, it's going to be weird. I was talking to my caddie, J.J., kind of middle of the round. I was like, it's going to be weird playing another course again because it's like you're playing your country club for two weeks. You pretty much have everything figured out, at least I hope I have everything figured out. But I know I don't; I know Jack is just going to trick this course up a lot more. Obviously off the tee it's going to fit very much the same, hitting the same clubs, which I think is going to be beneficial because I see really good lines off these tees. But who knows how much the rough is going to grow in the next three days. Greens can get baked out. I think yesterday with some wind, you started seeing some front pins a lot tougher than you would see even today. Today we had no wind.
So we got pretty lucky for this first week, but we'll see what happens next week.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Collin, for your time. Congratulations again. Looking forward to next week.
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