Searching for a ‘true fix’ to his swing, Collin Morikawa cards 61 to jump into TOUR Championship contention

ATLANTA – Collin Morikawa is searching for his old self.

The one that burst on the PGA TOUR scene in 2019 and won in his sixth event as a professional. The one that won twice in each of the next two seasons, including a pair of majors – the 2020 PGA Championship and the 2021 Open Championship.

The statistics show he’s at that level or even better. He entered the TOUR Championship gaining 1.45 strokes per round, the best mark of his career and good for 11th on TOUR.

It hasn’t felt that way to Morikawa, though. Maybe it’s the lack of a win. He lost a six-shot lead at The Sentry in January, then didn’t have another great chance until the Rocket Morgage Classic in June, when he fell to Rickie Fowler in a playoff.

That could be remedied this week at East Lake Golf Club. Morikawa’s opening-round 61 erased the nine-shot deficit he entered the week with. Now he stands in a tie for the lead at 10 under, alongside Keegan Bradley and Viktor Hovland, in position to win his first FedExCup.

“It was probably on the good end of old Collin Morikawa-type golf,” he said. “It’s just nice to know you have that control.”

When Morikawa was racking up victories in his first three years on TOUR, he did so with supreme confidence that the ball was never going left. Relying on his cut, Morikawa set up toward the left side of the fairways and greens and knew it would come back to the exact spot he wanted. For stretches this season, despite what the numbers indicate, that has escaped him.

He thought he had found the solution in Detroit. It was good enough to get him to the precipice of a win that has evaded him for over two years. But it didn’t last. He missed the cut in his next start at The Open Championship and hasn’t threatened to win either of the first two Playoffs events. But those feelings resurfaced early this week in Atlanta. The freedom that allowed him to play the cut with impunity returned thanks to a small change to his setup.

That he went low on Thursday was no shock to him, given how comfortable he felt. He’s also weary of declaring it a permanent remedy.

“Hopefully we found what is the true fix and will bring me back to what I was in 2019, 2020, 2021,” he said.

Sustaining it for three more days would be a good start. Entering the week 24th in the FedExCup and 1 under, he did not focus on getting within a certain number. He was only trying to post a good score. He thought if he could win the golf tournament without the strokes, that would show himself playing good golf. Now, winning the FedExCup is a real possibility.

His round of 61 was the lowest in the field, two better than the 63s posted by Bradley and playing partner Adam Schenk, who also climbed from the back of the pack into contention at 8 under. Morikawa and Schenk combined for a best-ball round of 13-under 57.

Morikawa gained nearly four strokes on approach, hitting 16 greens and leading the field in proximity to the hole (21’0”). His approach on the first hole left himself less than 3 feet for birdie. He made a 19-footer for birdie on No. 5, then stuck his 226-yard approach on the par-5 sixth to 4 feet and made an eagle. He added five birdies on the back nine, four of which came from putts inside 13 feet. The exception was a 36-footer he holed on the par-4 12th.

He gained nearly two strokes on the greens, fifth-best in the field. He made 119 feet of putts, second only to Tom Kim.

That’s the formula he has used in past wins, coupling the machine-like ball-striking with a hot week on the greens.

The difficult 224-yard par-3 15th hole was the purest distillation of how Morikawa feels with his swing. Facing nearly a 200-yard carry over the water to an island green, Morikawa started the ball right on the edge of where the water meets the left rough. He didn’t bother to watch where it ended up – in the center of the green, 20 feet from the hole.

“I knew where it was going to go,” Morikawa said. “It's nice to know that that golf swing is just exactly where I want it.”