RBC Heritage

Friday, April 16, 2021

Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, USA

Harbour Town Golf Links

Collin Morikawa

Quick Quotes


Q. Collin, got up there today, but quite a bit different weather conditions from day one.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, got a full 180 on the wind. Everything felt good. Just was probably about a foot short on speed all day. Could have had five, six more birdies out there. It happens, and I was glad to have a bogey-free round.

Q. How encouraging is it to give yourself chances and know that your score could be deeper than it is right now at minus-9?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, that's what you have to do. If you want to put yourself in contention by Sunday you got to give yourself chances. Game is feeling good, so hopefully we just start dropping a few more putts like yesterday on the weekend.

Q. Looking ahead to the weekend, we could see some rain maybe tomorrow a little bit, changing conditions. Confidence level moving to the weekend now?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Everything feels good. Everyone is going to have to play in the same weather hopefully, and see what happens.

Q. 3-under on the day, 9-under heading into the weekend. What are your main takeaways from today?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: You know, just about a foot short on all my putts. If I hit it with a little more pace I could have had a few more birdies out there.

But overall when you have a bogey-free round your doing a lot of things well, so hopefully keep the mistakes out of play and have a low weekend.

Q. Any frustration creeping throughout the round as the putts were not going in?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, you know, after I missed -- after I three-putted on 2 I knew there was still a lot of birdie opportunities and I just had to keep hitting good shots. I mean, I kept doing that, which was good. I didn't play too aggressive when I didn't need to.

Yeah, it was tough not seeing a few birdies in. I got kind of a lucky birdie on 6, but we'll work on a few things and be fine for the weekend.

Q. And as you look to the weekend, what do you want to take from the last two days to hopefully improve upon?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Even though my speed wasn't great today, overall the my putting has felt great. When I'm over the putt everything feels confident. I had a lot of putts today that looked like they were going in; just fell a little short.

So just got to keep that going, keep the ball striking going, but everything feels really good.

Q. How long do you think about being a foot short?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: How long do I think about it?

Q. Will you take it home?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: No, I already forgot about it. That's a good question though.

Q. Collin, continuing the hoodie revolution. Looks good on you. (Laughter.) Curious how it feels and whether it's ever cumbersome back there or anything?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: No, it's fine. We got two little straps right here. I should probably just cut them off or take it out. So I tuck it in.

I mean, I don't mind it. It's comfy, right? Look at the people out here. They're wearing T-shirts and whatnot, so...

Q. Do you give Tyrrell Hatton credit for paving the way, like a pioneer?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, no, I think that's he's the first one to win with it, so obviously he started something.

Q. Were you an the Ocean Course the other day?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: I was.

Q. Takeaways from that?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, it's a big golf course, I'll tell you that. Pars are your friend out there. Out there the greens aren't too big. Obviously very wind dependant. If you don't have any wind it's playable, but if it's windy that back nine can pick up.

It's going to be a great test because it's going to test every part of your game. You're going to have to hit really good long irons into the wind and control the ball downwind, so shows you why the scores even, what, nine years ago, were what they were.

Q. They always say this is an iron players' course, so no surprise to see you at the top. Do you get primed up for tournaments like this? Do you see this as one you can definitely go out and win?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: To be honest, you know, I haven't showed up to a course and been afraid like and thinking I couldn't win. If I have, then we've got a problem and I got figure out what I need to do.

When you show up to a course like this that has smaller greens, yes, it gives you a little boost of confidence knowing that you can get a little advantage on some other guys.

But you still got to make the putts. They were rolling in yesterday; didn't get as many today. So, yeah.

Two more days.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
106789-1-1041 2021-04-16 17:17:00 GMT

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