Collin Morikawa interview: 'I got lazy after USPGA win - I allowed the fire to go out'

[ASFN Admin]

A first-time major winner traditionally allows him or herself some time of acclimatisation to the new status, perhaps interspersed with a measure of lubrication. Not Collin Morikawa. In a stunning rebuke to his reaction to winning the USPGA last year, the American has torn strips off himself. “I was lazy,” he said. “I allowed the fire to go out.” As Morikawa stood on the practice range at Emirates Golf Club and went all Hamlet in his self-damning soliloquy, it was tempting to interrupt and demand he give himself a break. After all, he was only 22 when he prevailed at Harding Park, San Francisco, and that was only his second major start. Furthermore, Morikawa has actually improved his world ranking in the succeeding five months, moving up from fifth to fourth. Yet this young man was not moving or for removing his sackcloth. “Yeah, It’s not like I wasn't practising or anything, I was still grinding, but after the [US] PGA, I just felt like good golf should happen,” Morikawa said. “And that's not the case. You can't get lazy. You can't expect anything. “I was going through all the motions, but the mind wasn't fully there. Of course, you want to enjoy the PGA win but I still had two more majors to play. I should have reset my goals, I shouldn’t have tried to mosey on through the fall. I needed to keep setting the bar high. Not to say I didn't want to win. It's just, you know, that the fire wasn't as fiery as it should have been.” The problem with being a boy wonder is that those around you do not wish to pile on the pressure. The understandable urge is to preach patience. Except a player such as Morikawa does not make 22 cuts in his first 22 PGA Tour starts - a rookie streak only bettered by Tiger Woods in the modern era - with the desire of hanging around. Morikawa plainly wanted far more than 44th in his first Masters three months ago and so called an emergency meeting. “Right before I came over here to Dubai for the DP World Tour Championship six weeks ago, I sat down with my coach, caddie and the rest of my team and I said, ‘yeah, the major is in the locker, great, but I'm not happy with how I’m playing’. And then they admitted they weren't either. We had to figure out what was wrong and in the three events since I think we’re on the road to doing that.” Morikawa finished 10th in the DP World - the European Tour’s seasonal finale - and in the first two weeks of this year, chalked up two PGA Tour seventh places in Hawaii. “I was prepared, I was ready and I've started off the year on a really strong footing,” he said. “It was a long flight over and obviously with what's going on with Covid it was made more complicated. But I had no second thoughts. I am here for no other reason than winning.” Well, there is the little matter of being an “ambassador” for Omega, the title sponsor of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic that starts here on Thursday and that comes with contractual responsibilities. But when talking to the erudite Californian there is an unmistakable sense that he intends to be a global player as the Tours come closer and the world gets smaller. Morikawa certainly received no appearance money to turn up at the Jumeirah Estates event 10 miles up the road in December and has been seen here plugging into the knowledge of a few European veterans. One of these has been Ian Poulter and, apart from the vagaries of the course itself, the subject has inevitably been the Ryder Cup. “Ian was great on that,” he said. “He says the fans bring the life to it and its all about embracing that. It comes down to energy.” For the first two rounds here, Morikawa plays with Sergio Garcia, the Ryder Cup’s record points-scorer, and Tyrrell Hatton, the Englishman who rose to fifth in the world last Sunday with his win in Abu Dhabi. Expect a frisson of Whistling Straits emotion, with Morikiawa seemingly, if not alamingly, already understanding the secret to Europe’s success. “I haven't had a ton of experience, but from what I've played in amateur golf, Walker Cup, Palmer Cup, to me it comes down to a chemistry,” he said. “You look at the Europeans and this is a great example, when we were playing at the DP World, we were all hanging out after, obviously socially distant and wearing our masks, but everyone was enjoying it. Everyone is a tight-knit group and I think the guys in the US, that's a big thing for us is just have that team chemistry. “I really hope this is a different time period and when we come out, we can start a new trend of US domination. It’s all about resetting those goals.”

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