‘People Joke About It’ – Collin Morikawa Says Players Joke About Handing In Backup Driver In Testing

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The two-time major winner admitted the gag comes up in locker room chats but was quick to clarify that, in reality, “no one actually does it.”

His comments come in the wake of scrutiny over driver conformity, most notably surrounding Rory McIlroy at the PGA Championship.

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and it’s kind of rare to find that, but um thankfully the results have kind of followed from it, but it it just fits. It’s a tough golf course. It’s playing really tough already so far on a Wednesday, and um it’s only going to get tougher, so which is great. All right, we’ll just go right into questions. You have a question, raise your hand. We start over here with Dylan. Colin, just from walking around a little bit, that the I mean, my shoes are soaked. Uh somehow the greens still seem relatively firm. from the rough seems really long, but I know this place is always really tough. Does it seem any tougher this year or this is just how it goes? It seems tougher so far like through t Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday than we’ve seen. You know, normally the weeks as the weeks as the week goes on, rough grows a little bit, dries out, but for a Wednesday, I mean, you could play the tournament and it’d feel like a Saturday just with these conditions. So, it’s Yeah, I think we know we’re in for a tough test this week and um it’s not going to be easy by any means. I mean, that’s what’s great about this golf course. Like, it we’re not hitting like five and five and four irons every hole. It’s like you can have an eight iron and still put yourself in a bad position. And how do you feel just personally about your golf game and where are you coming into this week? Yeah, it’s uh I’m in a weird spot right now. I feel like I’m really close, but yet sometimes you don’t know what you’re searching for. Um, I know it’s something small and and that’s the click that I need to to just play free, but some, you know, it’s hard to find that. And, you know, I can go out and play solid golf, but I’m not looking for just a solid golf and a decent result. You know, there’s there’s one goal. So, it’s it’s been a little bit frustrating over the past kind of couple months, you know, just to everything feels all right, but I know it’s just not playing as cleanly as I could. Um, so it’s doing that. Are you talking about your golf swing when you’re there’s some little thing that you’re searching for or like a mental trigger? It’s a little bit of both. You know, I think when I look back at my past few tournaments, I’ve been making a lot of bogeies and making honestly some doubles. Um, and that’s just one, you can’t win golf tournaments like that making that many bogeies. And to me, that’s a little bit physical, a little bit mental. And I think one of if I find one of them, that could be the trigger to clean up everything else. Um, but I’m still, you know, back and forth, honestly, trying to figure out what I kind of lean on and say this is, you know, what I’m gonna do for the rest of the week and see how it kind of plays out. I’m a little lost. Do you know exactly what it is you’re looking for? No, I don’t think golfers ever do. I think golfers always are trying to We’re always trying to get better and, you know, sometimes we take a step in the wrong direction. I mean, I’ve done that for sure in the past, but it’s hard to describe to your coach and your team to say something’s off. Yet, when they look at everything, everything looks great, right? But it’s a feeling as a player and a gut instinct to say, “This is the shot I’m going to hit.” I have full 100% confidence that I can pull it off. Um, so no, I I think I’m looking for something in the swing mechanically and and feel-wise in the swing that allows me to just play a little bit freer. I mean, I can go out and hit great shots and, you know, we can go out tomorrow and for the rest of the week and play great, but there’s a difference in, you know, having that full freedom and playing a little constrained and not knowing, you know, where the ball is going to go. I think there’s always going to be an unknown in golf. But when you’re when you do feel like you’re under control, that unknown, you’re that unknown becomes, you know, it disappears because even though you’re going to hit bad shots, you feel confident that those good shots are going to be great. And uh that’s that fine line I’m kind of teetering. How how driven are you by results? Uh I mean, I am driven by results a little bit. I have to be, you know, because I I know what goals I’m setting out, but I’m also knowing that the little things, you know, I can go out and feel like I played great and and feel like feel like I was in control and not play and not have a great result. I mean, that’s completely fine, too. So, there’s there’s a little bit of both. Okay, Luke, go ahead. Is is the is it like a outcome that you just don’t like seeing that’s kind of nagging in the back of your mind with some of the stuff? Is that how it works? Or it’s not it’s not necessarily just an outcome. It’s how do I describe this? It’s when you’re over the ball having your full intention of what we’re trying to do, right? And having every piece of the swing just kind of match. You know, it sounds simple to just say, “Hey, think when you’re over the ball, think about your target.” Yet sometimes, you know, we all have swing thoughts that could match that piece. We all have like for me tempo has always been a thing. Um so there’s always little things that can help piece each part into the shot and it’s how do I just hit that shot with full confidence. I think right now I’m sometimes too far target oriented which sounds crazy and sometimes I’m too far or too much just over the ball and it’s it’s it’s a blend that you have to be and you see you know the best players in the world you know you see Scotty for example and he just steps up and it’s just a free swing like that’s where I know I’ve been and that’s where I want to get again. And I guess on a slight flip side, um, is there like a quality about your game or it could be your mental game too that you just take a lot of pride in doing well? You know, like this is this is who I am. This is what I do really well as a professional golfer. Yeah. I think the way [Music] I plot through a golf course, you know, I’ve taken a lot of pride, I think, when I came out early on to say, “Yeah, you know, everyone always asks like, “Oh, you going to go see this golf course? See this golf course?” You know, I’ve never really done that because I feel like I can kind of dissect a golf course really, really well that fits my game. Um, and you know, look, mentally I feel like I’m one of the best out there. I feel like recently, over the past kind of year, it hasn’t been as sharp, yet still at those not so sharp moments, I still feel like I’m strong, and that’s what keeps me in it, you know, and um that’s what you h you have to if you want to try and be the best. Okay. Right here, Colin. If um in the weeks leading up to um a a major, do you do anything with your game, maybe even while you’re playing to mentally think or get prepared for a major that you try to work on? And have you how do you prepare for US Open? Maybe like in particular at Oakmont. Yeah. I mean, a good example would be obviously we have the US Open in two weeks. I mean, for this week, I’m I’m focused on this week, but once I finish up on Sunday, you know, it’s it’s going to be how do we how do we look at this golf course where driving is going to be really important because of how long the rough is. Am I going to practice a little bit more out of the rough at home, chipping around the greens? Like I said, I haven’t gone to Oakmont, so I’ll watch as much video as there is. Um, but I think if you’re going to win a golf tournament, every aspect of your golf game has to be on, especially at a major championship. And at a major championship, one, you have to just drive the ball great. And for me, that, you know, for someone that doesn’t hit it that far, it’s like I have to drive it even better. And it’s just how do I fine-tune the little things going back to every week is I need to fine-tune little things to get there. If I could ask you one other question about uh longish par 3s, 250 plus. Oakmont has one 299. Are you a fan of those long par 3es or are you bigger fan of the shorter ones? I don’t think anyone’s really a big fan of them. Um, I mean, I think the only fun one to play is Cypress Point 16 cuz it’s beautiful, you know, the view is beautiful. Not the hole itself is just tough, you know. So, I think the memorable ones are the shorter ones are the ones that have risk and reward, right? I think when there’s risk, we like risk because we like taking it on. And sometimes that’s why we have a caddy. We have to back away. We have to play smart and play or, you know, play the the correct shot. But risk can be involved with a sand wedge. It can be involved with an eight iron. Um I think when you just have 250 yards and you just start looking at dispersion, you know, that’s not really risk. That’s just we’re just playing odds on is everyone’s dispersion going to be wider. Um I’d rather take on more risk, have everything a little tighter. I mean like 12 is a great example. 12 is I mean 12 here is very very hard you know and we’ve got eight iron in our hands yet a small error could mean back bunker could mean water could mean the tournament so it it’s just things like that 12 is you know extremely hard but that’s the difference of 170 yards a lot of risk reward um not that you can play safe but you just have to hit a golf shot versus me teeing up three-wood go to Alex and then Bob Yeah. Count. So, when you said you want to get back to where it was, when was that last for you? Um, probably 21. You know, I’ve I’ve played, it’s not like I haven’t played good golf and solid golf, but from a full physical and mental cleanliness, uh, and just clarity, I’d say 21. And also, do you think at times maybe you overthink? Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, look, I I Joe, this is the the third week with Joe Grinder on the bag, and you know, he’s already called me crazy a lot, and that’s fine. I I I think golfers are generally crazy. I know I am. I mean, you give me I had eight weeks off this offseason. You You should You should hear about the amount of things I tried. just I mean I had seven different grips, different wraps on my grips. Like I I was going through it all. You just give me a little too much time and I just go down rabbit holes. Um but that’s to me, look, I going back to this whole riskreward thing. I don’t mind taking risk and I don’t mind trying to change because I want to keep getting better. And you know, if I just kind of stay where I’m at, you’re going to just keep getting lapped. And it doesn’t mean you have to change everything. But look, I think I’m a very different player than I was in 21 and 2020. And um not that I want to be that same exact player, but I want to be able to play as freely as I did a few years ago. Okay, Bob. Colin, just following on that a little bit. Um does any you think any of that early success that you had has I don’t know, have have you been too hard on yourself maybe? um or or just you know not giving yourself uh the opportunity to sort of just assess and recognize you know what I have is still really good. Yeah. Um I think it well it happened in a weird way because it you know when I look at 21 to 22 I wasn’t trying to change anything and like get that much better or get distance or whatever. I just went through a bad patch of like my body stopped moving. uh things weren’t in the right place and then I was just fighting it. So I was I was trying to maintain honestly and then I got to a point where it just kind of backfired. Um whereas like now you know yeah I think the people around me and my team definitely try and keep me a little more from being crazy because even though you know the results look great, swing looks great, shots look great, yet deep down I know it’s just I’m not playing as clean of golf and as free of golf as I would like. Um, so it’s hard to articulate that because no one else can be in my body and say, “Huh, yeah, maybe you were uncomfortable with an eight iron in your in the middle of my hand or in the middle of the fairway, right?” Um, so it’s, yeah, I early on I definitely didn’t enjoy the present as much as I do now. Um, and it’s definitely, you know, you look back and you realize how hard golf can be. And um it sucks cuz I would love to relive those moments, but it’s very motivating for me to see all these guys playing well because I know I can do it. You know, I know it’s going to I I know I’m going to make it happen and and will it at some point. It’s just, you know, finding that right little stride and that right little thing that just clears it up. Like I said, it’s very small. It sounds very big, but it’s it’s impactful for how I play and how I think I need to play. Adam, what’s something in those last three events that Joe said, “You’re you’re crazy.” Um, well, I mean, yesterday is a great example. I uh was hitting driver with my normal driver shaft and it was a little cooler with some wind and um a week ago I had a couple driver shafts that were built uh slightly different tipped and I was like, “Ah, I’m just going to use this one. Body’s not moving as good.” striped him down the fairway and he’s like, “Okay, you know, maybe you’re not.” I mean, you know, I I I probably blame my clubs a little bit too much. Uh yet every everything’s important, right? From the specs we have to the to the grips you’re using to the grooves on the face, like everything matters. Um, and like I said, you can sometimes take in too much of that, but if you look at the history of great players, they know everything that they’re using and why they’re using it, right? So, they’re just little things, but yeah, that’s I mean, that was less than 24 hours ago. Um, you would have won the tour championship last year under the format they’re switching to. How do you feel about the change that’s coming? Uh, yeah. I mean, it could, should have, would have, right? I mean, that that was last year. This is this year. Um, I think it’s it’s good. You know, golf’s so hard to put in a playoff aspect because people can go on runs. People, you know, you could be the best player in January or February and not be the best player in July or August. But for us, you know, making that tour championship is very important. every year, you know, no matter how you play, when you look back and you say you made the tour championship, no matter what your goals are, yes, some guys have different goals, but you look back and you’re like, okay, you know, 22 and 23 were two of my I felt like the worst years I was playing golf, yet I made the tour championship. And you look back and when you get there on Monday, you’re like, okay, we’re doing something right. Right. We’re finding a way to play golf and be the best on tour. And now you give yourself a chance to win the FedEx Cup and that’s all that matters. You know, I think when I’ve started at roughly even par or one under, you’re like, man, I I just got to I got to ball out. Like, I got to go crazy. Hopefully, I have four insane days and we’ll see. But now, like every other sport, you have a chance to win essentially your championship. And uh that’s what you get here. It’s just golf. Golf’s really tough because, you know, how do you reward that in a way that someone had played really really well from January through August essentially for however many events we play? Um, but this is what they’re making it and I love it because it’s it’s one tournament. You want to be there. Um, and you want to win it. Have you failed a driver’s test in the past? Um, not that I’m aware of. No, I don’t think I swing it fast enough or I don’t hit enough drivers on the range. One or the other. Do Do you feel that there’s some players that in the past have given a certain driver like a backup driver to be tested knowing they wouldn’t even be using it? Uh I I sure hope not. I mean, I’m I’m sure someone has done it and people joke about doing it, but I don’t think anyone actually does. You know, it’s just all our clubs have lifespans on them. We know it, you know, and I like my Sim driver that I played for like three and a half years somehow never p never failed. I was going to say never passed. Never failed. Um, but like I said, it’s just the amount of shots people hit, the reps you take, you keep hitting in the center. Um, you know, they have lifespans. So, I don’t I don’t I don’t think people do that. I think people joke about it, but I don’t think people do it. And if they do, then I mean, sure, is it going to help? I don’t think it’s like when when when these fail, you know, we’re on such fine margins that, you know, they give us this like green, yellow, red. Like, we want our drivers to be in yellow. It’s it’s passing, but it’s like you want it to be fast. You don’t want it to be slow. But if it’s close to failing or if it’s failing and it’s close to cracking, I mean, what are you gaining? You’re not gain. You’re like, guys aren’t going to hit it 25 yards further, you know? I don’t think it’s really changing much. It’s just you got to you got to have a line somewhere and that’s that’s where they’ve drawn the line. Okay, Dylan. your words, not mine. But have you always been crazy or uh is this kind of a a more recently developing thing? Yeah. No, it’s it’s always been there. Yeah. I’ve I mean, from the wraps of my golf clubs to, you know, just how things look and trying a bunch of things, like it’s it’s in my DNA. It’s just I love just having all those variables and seeing what works and what doesn’t. You know, I don’t mind more information. I want I want that information. I can filter it all out, but um yeah, sometimes you go off a little bit too far, but you know, it’s for what I think I need to do. I’m still searching for that one little thing that just wipes everything clean and says go out and play. Yeah. All right, Colin. Thanks for the time. Best of luck this week. Thank you. All right.