Q. How would you assess the day?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Really steady, really solid. It was a bad two shots on my second and third shot on the second hole, but overall, I hit it where I needed to, took advantage of the ones I did hit close and made a few putts, and I came out bogey-free, which I'm really, really happy.
Q. What was the difference between today's round and yesterday's round?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yesterday it was blowing more, but I got impatient. I was rushing a lot of shots towards the end and I was trying to time it up in such a small little window that instead of feeling the shot, I just used my head, and that's never good for me. I have to feel it out and kind of trust my gut and really made sure I stayed patient with that today.
Q. Is that something you recognize after the round? Do you sit down and talk to your caddie and say, What happened or --
COLLIN MORIKAWA: No, I knew it once I got through 17 yesterday. I mean, it was a bad bunker shot and that was just trying to get too pretty with it. After I walked off 18, and thankfully I made par yesterday on 18, I just knew, like, I just had to stay patient and just trust myself. Rick's been out here all week, so we talked this morning and it was a 30-second talk because the swing still feels good. I just never got in a rhythm of feeling out the golf shot.
You can get so caught up in numbers and this makes sense, this doesn't make sense, but if you can't feel the shot, it doesn't matter. You're never going to execute that great shot a handful of times.
Q. Do you feel -- maybe after yesterday, you didn't, but now you must feel at least you're in touch now?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, look, Scottie's not -- I don't expect Scottie to fall back. The wind's definitely in a different kind of direction the last few holes than what we expected and we thought, so that makes kind of 17, 18 a little bit tougher. But, look, I'm still going to have to go out and shoot a really good score tomorrow. But this course bites. You might look at some of these holes as birdie opportunities, but you miss the fairway, you're going to try and save par. I think the winds might be up a little bit more tomorrow with the same wind we got yesterday, so it's going to play tough.
Q. You talked about it -- and you said Rick's been here this week. You guys have talked about him more sometimes just an ear that he kind of has for you. Has that been more what it's been this week more than maybe technical stuff that you're working on?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: It's not a lot of technical stuff, a lot of it has been talking through it, going through the process, thinking through things, and obviously it's been very, very helpful over these past couple months.
Q. What have you liked most about what you've done this week?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: To be honest, I've just kind of continued what I've been doing. I think I've played a little messier this week than I have say at Colonial and at the PGA. I've made too many mistakes, but I've also been able to rebound from that and not get away from myself. If I had six more holes yesterday after 17 it could have been bad. Thankfully, I only had one and I got out of there and I was able to regroup. That's golf, right, you have to be able to regroup. I just thought yesterday I just got in this little rut on the pine where I felt like I hit a good shot, wasn't doing this, wasn't doing that, but it's because I wasn't feeling out the shots, I was just playing numbers in my head trying to do this math equation instead of actually being an artist and playing shots.
Q. Obviously you made a push today, you were in this position last year and then, what was it, your back gave out on you? What do you think you need to do between today and tomorrow to really put yourself in position as far as tomorrow is concerned?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: I've got to go out and put out a round like I did today. Scottie's not really coming backwards and I've got to play some steady golf. That doesn't mean I got to press. Look, if I shoot 4-under tomorrow, I think I'm going to be pretty happy, but you just kind of play it through the ear and start off on hole 1, have a game plan, and see how many shots you can execute on a Sunday when you're roughly within a handful of shots.
Q. What was it last year with the back? Why do you think you had some of the issues that you had between your third and fourth round?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: It was warming up in the gym. It was this one movement we did. Something that I've kind of, we've all taken care of, so I know what to do, what not to do, what to watch and go on from there.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports