Collin Morikawa philosophical about lack of wins since 2021 Open triumph: 'That's life'
- Planet Sport writer
- 18 July 2023
The American has plenty of top-10s to his name in the last two years, but victories have proven much harder to come by.
Collin Morikawa admits the last two years have not gone as expected but he retains the belief he will regain the form which made him one of golf's hottest properties.
In 2021 the 26-year-old added the Claret Jug to his US PGA title from the previous year to become the first player to win two different majors in his debut appearance and the first since Bobby Jones in 1926 to win twice in eight or fewer starts.
The DP World Championship title in November of that year took his tally of professional wins to six but since then the victories have dried up, even if he has maintained a consistency which has brought him 11 top-10 finishes in 38 events.
"I would say the last two years have been interesting, not the way I would have guessed it would have gone two years ago but that's golf and that's life," he said.
"You really don't know what to expect. It's really about learning and truly learning about it to really realise the steps that I took.
"Would I have changed anything? Would I have done anything different? Maybe a couple things but it's all about putting that game plan together, refining things, knowing what you're going to do, and I think I've kind of done that and gotten better.
"You first have to believe in yourself but everything has to go your way. The way things line up, you have to have that lucky bounce.
"When you're playing well and you're in contention you get those breaks and it's just being able to pull off the shots when it matters the most."
Morikawa joked he was trying to change his luck by even considering reverting to calling this week's event at Royal Liverpool the 'British' Open - as is the wont of Americans - having corrected himself last year after receiving a barrage of social media criticism for doing that in his acceptance speech 12 months previously.
"I definitely called it the British Open the year I won and then people gave me hate for it, so then I called it The Open last year, but I played better when I called it the British Open so I might call it the British Open," he added.
"At the end of the day if you win it you can call it whatever the hell you want."
Morikawa lost out in a play-off earlier this month as Rickie Fowler ended his own four-year wait for a victory with a win at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit.
However, after a flawless final-round of 64 he was more than happy with where his game was at that point and hopes to capitalise to secure his place on the United States Ryder Cup team.
"Being in contention two weeks ago was the best feeling, walking down those last nine holes, it felt like it was just back to normal," he said.
"It didn't feel like it was out of the norm. It just felt like, man, we're here to make birdies, we're here to win the tournament.
"The play-off didn't go the way I wanted, but it just felt comfortable. To know that that's still there, that's the best feeling.
"The Ryder Cup is obviously a huge goal of mine and has been for the past two years but winning takes care of everything."
