Q. You've had some pretty good success here at this venue. How was that round out there today for you?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: It was really solid. Honestly, I woke up today kind of not knowing how the swing was going to produce. I spent a couple hours on the range after the pro-am yesterday and was just trying to find something. Yeah, kind of went to some old swing thoughts, and it's hard to filter through that, but did it on the range, and kind of was just able to go play golf. I got to trust myself that I'm playing good enough golf to go out there and win and that's what I did today.
Q. Was there anything specific?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: It's, honestly, just posture stuff and setup. It's not even a swing thought. It's more just at address making sure my posture is where it should be instead of getting a little lazy.
Q. You've played really well here obviously at times and other times not so well. What do you like about this course? Why do you think it fits your game?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, some golf courses when you're out here you just feel like you can make birdie on every hole, no matter how tough they are. It's just been a golf course where I feel like even the long holes, the tough holes, you put it in the fairway, I have my strengths of my irons to be able to hit good shots. It played a lot softer today than I thought it was going to and you're able to take advantage of that on a few of these holes.
Q. How was the rough?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Terrible. The rough is not great. You definitely want to stay out of the rough. It's rough that's penal enough to have to take wedge out and hopefully advance it 80 to a hundred yards. You're adding shots when you're missing the fairways.
Q. Just a pretty flawless scorecard, just the one bogey on 15. Can you talk us through that? What happened there?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, bad drive. Hit a bad drive, hit a good shot out and, honestly, my third shot, I would have taken. The putt off the fringe, got a little too giddy with it and straight downhill, swinging hard. Speed's going to be the most important thing. Just, you know, a couple bad shots on that hole added up to a bad six. But overall, everything else felt really, really good and it was nice to kind of bounce back after that.
Q. When you're out there playing, do you, like, often, in certain positions, like, having played here so much, do you sort of recall or draw on the past and things that you've done here?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, absolutely. There's a lot of tough holes out here. I've hit some great shots, but I've hit some really bad shots. Depending upon how the conditions are, you kind of have to adjust to that. We've played this golf course when it's very firm -- and I guarantee you by Sunday it's going to be a rock. You're just going to have to keep adjusting. Today, watching the few guys in the morning and just knowing, you know, you can kind of stick some iron shots you're able to get away with some good shots, good quality shots that were rewarded because it wasn't too, too firm yet.
Q. Trying to understand the swing thought thing for a second. So what you had yesterday, was it the same as you had today?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: No.
Q. Okay.
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Not even close.
Q. And what you had a week ago, is it the same as you had yesterday?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: No, no, no. It's more of a swing thought that I had around Bay Hill. Shocker that I didn't stick with it. Like I said yesterday, we're crazy. We think one thing's good, so then you just go away from than and try something new. But it's just, honestly it's just posture and making sure my posture's really good from the ground up and allowing my body to just go from there and swing it.
Q. Do you look at analytics very much?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: No, I would say some guys look at it a little bit more. I kind of know here and there.
Q. Would that get you like too crazy if you started adding that into the equation?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, yeah, I mean they have the, I think it's like the Sportsbox AI stuff that you can get all your numbers on your swing. The problem is, is my body keeps changing, as every year you get older your body changes, and the more work you put in or the less work you put in it's just, it's different than two years ago, five years ago, 10 years ago, right.
Q. So presumptively will you have the same swing thought tomorrow that you had today?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: I will definitely do that, yeah, yeah.
Q. Any time you transition to another caddie that's an adjustment. How has that adjustment been for you?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: It's been great. We're both putting in more work because we're both trying to learn how each other kind of fits in what equation for when we're hitting these shots. But I think we're doing a really good job of just talking through things when I need it, and we're keeping a great attitude out there which for me is huge now.
Q. You've obviously had a lot of success in majors and all that, how frustrating is it when the game just kind of drifts away from you sometimes?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I wouldn't say drifts away, I mean, it's just there's times where you're not winning as much. Early on I was able to capitalize on a lot of final rounds and play well and end up on top. But like I said when I started this, it's like I've got to trust myself that I can go out and win. Not that I don't, but when I'm teeing it up even when things don't feel perfect or they do feel perfect, just got to trust that I can get it done.
Q. Was there a particular shot or moment out there that kind of kept your momentum in that round going?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: I think it started around 6, making the good 2-putt from the front of the green. 7 made a great up-and-down. 8 hitting it to five feet. That was kind of the stretch that -- I felt like I gave one away on 3, missing a short putt, could have been a couple more under. But those are the ones that added up, and you make the turn at 3-under and it's like I'm taking that every day.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports