Collin Morikawa: ‘I just need to go out and play golf’

Then March arrived. With a hiccup. He missed the cut at The Players Championship, this from a guy who made the cut in each of his first 22 tournaments. At the Valspar Championship the following week, he tied for 68th. At the WGC Match Play two weeks ago, he failed to advance beyond the round of 16.

As far as glide paths into Masters week, this one is a bad dream.

“In 2021 at the beginning of the year, people are like, ‘Oh, how are you going to follow up 2020?’” he said. “You just go out and play golf. And what’s crazy is that my prep starting at The Players through Valspar and WGC, my prep has been better than anything, anything I’ve ever done. And then when I show, I’m not making birdies and I’m not hitting my shots, so that’s why it was frustrating. But I feel like it’s small things and I’m really close.”

For a player who has been able to solve so much so soon in his career, Augusta National has offered Morikawa a different challenge. A dedicated cut driver since early in his days at Cal-Berkeley, he has tried without much success to incorporate a right-to-left draw on a course that asks for them often. This amounts to begging for bogeys.

“It’s just really hitting cuts and hitting fairways. That’s as simple as it gets,” he said. “Those are my strengths. Irons are my strength. How do I stick to that?

“I remember when I came in November (in 2020). No 2, I tried hitting a draw for no reason. You don’t have to hit a draw. (No.) 3 I tried hitting a draw, which makes no sense. (No.) 5, I played it out right. (No.) 7, I tried to hit a draw. (No.) 9 I tried to hit − so that’s more draws than I hit the entire year off tee shots, right?”

The results: predictable. He tied for 44th in 2020 (1-over 288) and tied for 18th last year (287). He challenged in neither weekend. Yet during an abbreviated practice round Monday, he sensed something different in the course, something in the conditions that challenged him in a different way.

“It’s as good as it can be,” he said. “And, you know, I know there’s some rain and I know there’s some weather in the forecast, but if they can somehow cover it up, this is the first time I’ve seen roll in the fairways.

“The past two Masters, I’ve worried about mud balls – maybe that’s a bad word to say here – but it’s true. ... And it’s kind of cool to see the course like that because you really have to pinpoint and play your way out here strategically with all the slopes and really, you know, making sure you miss in the right spots.”

Which is where the puzzle of Augusta National lies: know what to do where and when. After two Masters, he is learning how much there is to learn here.

“Yeah, the standards have gone up, and the standards sometimes are a little too high and they end up hurting me rather than helping me when you’re out on the golf course,” he said. “You know, I feel like I should hit an 8-iron to 10 feet every single time, but, you know, it just doesn’t happen. There are times that that happens.

“But the biggest thing for me is just (to) keep getting better. Like how do I keep figuring things out, learning small little things. But at the end of the day, what I have realized over the past month is I just need to go out and play golf. Like there are so many guys that think about so much. And, yeah, it works one week, works this other week. But, like, just get the ball in the hole. Figure out how to get it into the hole.”