MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 6, 2023

Collin Morikawa

Quick Quotes

Q. Take us through the round.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Pretty mediocre. One bad swing today on 13. I think everything else was pretty good. Thankfully I didn't hurt myself on 9. Hit a root that was a little scary.

Overall, though, the prep -- I probably had some of the best prep I've had in my career so far these past few days. Obviously you've got to put it together in a tournament. Weren't quite able to make the putts and hit it as close.

Overall felt really, really good. For as bad as it could have been, I'll take a 3-under.

Q. What made the prep so good?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Just staying focused. I came ready when I was here on Monday and really put in an effort to ramp up the intensity of everything. Not just hit shots just because we're in the fairway and really focus in on my targets, kind of playing as if I were playing in the tournament.

It takes a lot of energy, but every day I felt very fresh so far, so it's been really good.

Q. Not to keep playing the why game, but what do you think has allowed to you have more focus?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: I think seeing a lot of good shots, that helps. But just putting in the extra effort. I think last year so much of the focus on what do I do? How do I hit this shot? How do I hit this club? Right now that's out of the mind and just focusing on picturing what a good shot looks like and seeing what a good shot looks like.

I go back to college, and what I worked on last week was just really seeing the shots. In college I saw it so well. And I was able to do that pretty good today.

Q. Do you feel freer with that mindset?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yes, I think it's less in your head and more external, more on the target. That helps. Any time you get out of your own head, it makes it easier to make shots.

Q. How would you characterize last year, just the way you handled everything from performance to mental and all that?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: It's tough. There's ups and downs. I just chalk it up to hopefully a learning experience, and I think I did learn from it. It was frustrating, and I definitely could have taken it a little slower. I just wanted to go to that next tournament. I wanted to play well, and you wanted to keep trying to put yourself on leaderboards, and when it didn't happen, you got even more frustrated.

I definitely took a step back right after leading in the playoffs. Ever since the fall, everything has felt so much better. I'm a lot happier out there and just kind of enjoying hitting those good shots.

Q. What happened on the 6 green today when you tried to mark the ball?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: On 6?

Q. Did the ball move back on you?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, the ball moved, and then I moved it back. Pretty standard now. Pretty routine in our rules book thankfully.

Q. That rule's changed over the past few years.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Look, if I showed up to this course and it was firm and fast, I probably would never put my putter down because you never know when that's going to just trickle on. Now it's was on a little mound and moved and nothing wrong with that.

Q. What was the root on 9?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: That was scary. I thought it was actually a little dirt patch in front of me, and there was dirt behind me, so I had to go steep at it. But I thought it was dirt in front of me. Never thought it was a root. It was a large root. Thankfully I didn't hurt myself.

I was shocked and we were shocked that nothing broke, nothing -- no pain, not at all. But it was a scary little moment. Definitely haven't had that in a while.

Q. Is the club okay?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Club's fine. 9-iron's good.

Q. 13, what happened?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: It was just a bad swing. Simple 4-iron. I hit that yesterday, hit it perfect. Hit 4- and 5-iron yesterday into the green. Yeah, just one bad swing. If it's five yards farther left, I think it's perfect on the green and probably get out of there with a two-putt birdie.

Q. Do you like the changes to that hole or no?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: I'm kind of indifferent. I think it was -- I think what you saw today, I'm guessing a lot of guys went for it because there's not a speck of wind out there. It's as good as it's going to get. Guys are going to be able to push it down a little more left, wind's not going to touch it.

I think the next few days with the wind picking up, we'll see a lot more layups because it's not worth going for it when you're 240 out to the front maybe.

Q. If you had to compare the mental attitude with the majors you've won to the mental attitude here, what would you say?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Right now I'd say it's the same. Last year was very different. Right now it's very much the same.

Going into Harding Park, I made a putting change the week before. When it was WGC in Memphis, felt super comfortable. It was in a place that I knew. The Open was interesting because I felt really good and I actually blamed it on my clubs. The TaylorMade guys will tell you, look, we did a little iron switch and it worked out perfect. The game felt really good.

That's how I felt coming into this game. The prep I did Monday through Wednesday. Being four back with not really making anything or doing anything special today, I'll take that. Especially if we get away with the weather tomorrow, at least in the morning, through my 18 holes and let it go to hell after that.

Q. Did anyone, before you signed your scorecard, bring up the marking on 6 just to ask you what happened there?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: No. Is that a big talk?

Q. It's blowing up on social media.

Q. They cut the video from when you were crouched down moving it. Instead of showing you addressing it and the ball rolling back.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: So they what? Good. Bring that PIP up. Blow me up, guys. What happened? Just so I know.

Q. It's on Twitter. It's someone taking like a video of the TV, and she start the video when you're already crouched down with the marker behind and moving the ball.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: With the marker like this far behind. Because I threw it down because I was going to throw the marker back. I'm not fine. There's no rules official. You guys are freaking me out here. I'm going to get hunted down.

Q. You're good.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Good. PIP's going up.