Collin Morikawa frustrated by winless season: ‘Winning, to me, is everything’

“Frustrating.”

That’s how Collin Morikawa characterized his season when asked about his play prior to this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic.

Full-field tee times from Rocket Mortgage Classic

After bursting on the scene with five PGA Tour wins – including two major championships – within a span of two years, Morikawa finds himself in a dry spell of nearly the same length.

His last Tour victory came at The Open Championship in 2021, a season in which he nearly ascended to No. 1 in the world. The Cal product is now world No. 20.

“It’s been a while, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know how to [win], it’s still there,” Morikawa said. “You’ve got to put together some solid golf. … This year hasn’t been great, but I’m not giving up. We’re still right there, we’re 32nd FedExCup. A win puts us pretty high up so just focus on how to win.

“I think it’s just coming down to control the golf ball. Right now I brought in left on the golf course. That’s when I was playing my best, when I was winning, I could swing as hard as I’d want and the ball was never going left.”

Morikawa seemed poised to win in his first start of 2023 before collapsing down the stretch at the Sentry Tournament of Champions and being overtaken by Jon Rahm. In his next start, the Farmers Insurance Open, Morikawa contended before ultimately finishing third.

All signs pointed to the 26-year-old having regained the form that made him one of the best in the world. A win seemed inevitable, but things have gone the wrong direction for Morikawa.

Since his third place finish at Torrey Pines in late January, Morikawa has zero top-5 finishes on Tour, four missed cuts and one withdrawal (due to back spasms prior to the final round of The Memorial).

Needless to say, that’s not what a player of his caliber anticipated and it’s certainly not where he wants to be with his game.

“I mean, frustrating, frustrating’s a word I can use,” Morikawa said when asked to characterize his season. “Look, it all comes down to just winning. You can miss 20 cuts and have two wins, and I’d love to win. It’s not the consistency I’d want, but you get my point. Winning, to me, is everything. You’ve got to learn how to close, you’ve got to be able to do it.

“It sucked at Memorial because obviously I hurt myself and I was two back. Being two back at that course, you make one birdie in the first four holes, you might be tied for the lead, right? So it’s just putting myself in contention, giving myself three days of good golf to get there to Sunday to be in contention, right? I’ve kind of put myself behind the eight-ball recently playing some bad first rounds, trying to climb back up second, third, fourth round. It’s hard to win tournaments like that.”

According to PointsBet, Morikawa is one of the co-favorites to win this week, alongside Rickie Fowler and defending champion Tony Finau.

Ending his nearly two-year drought in Detroit would go a long way toward another trip to East Lake and a spot on this year’s United States Ryder Cup team.