ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL

March 6, 2026

Collin Morikawa

Bay Hill Club and Lodge

Quick Quotes

Q. Considering how difficult the conditions were out there, how would you characterize the round?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Great. Honestly, pretty good. Yesterday -- I felt like I had a little more control of the golf ball today. Just didn't convert a few of the birdies. It's just tough. It's a grind from hole 1, even on the easy holes. I played the par-5s -- I wouldn't say well, but I was in position to score well and walked away with one birdie.

So it just shows you how tough these greens are. They're getting brown and they're going to be very, very brown, if not purple, by Sunday, and that's just part of this week.

Q. Does it go green, yellow, brown, purple?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Pretty much. Yeah, that's the color scale that we tend to see.

Q. In your opinion, what was the toughest part of the conditions for you today?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: This course just plays a lot of crosswinds, so there's a lot of shots where you're either covering bunkers or carrying water and, obviously, you can't miss one way or the other when you're guessing is it helping -- slightly helping or slightly hurting. You hope to just be in that right window that you guessed correctly, hit the shot well enough, and somehow stopped close to the hole.

Q. Are you surprised to see Daniel Berger sitting at 13-under?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: I mean, not surprised. I think you can score -- you can still score. That's why this golf course is great, because you get rewarded on great shots. But that's like, that's some great golf. I hope doesn't keep it up for the sake of my score. Because, beginning of the week, 13-under, like you probably would take that.

Q. When you, are we at a point now that when you look at the schedule at the start of the year that you can just point at this and say, yeah, this will be our strongest test before the Masters?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Be the what? Strongest test? Yeah, I mean, it's a different -- what's different about here is like between play many courses that are this firm, like bouncy. So it's a different test than what Augusta would be.

Q. Green bouncy?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, green bouncy. From a tee shot perspective, it's probably more narrow than Augusta. Sawgrass I think gives you the overall test for your game, essentially going into Augusta, but yeah, it's challenging. Augusta's challenging in its one way, so like you shoot 13-under at Augusta, you're still going to be thrilled. You shoot 13-under here, like you're still going to be thrilled. But there's just different ways of managing golf courses.

Q. Do you look forward to it?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Augusta?

Q. Knowing what you're getting here.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, yeah, I love the tough golf courses. It's a grind, I feel like a lot of guys go into these weeks where when you're just a little bit off it kind of scares 'em. But like, for me, I just feel like it narrows my focus a little bit to where you really, really got to execute golf shots.

Q. Is it easier to accept bogeys?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Well...

Q. You know what I mean by that?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I think it's easier to accept bogeys when you're comfortable with your golf game. Like I'm accepting bogeys a lot better than eight months ago because I know I can go out in a position for myself to go out and make birdies, I trust my game that I'm going to go out and play good golf.

Q. I hate bogeys?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: I hate bogeys.

Q. How much is too much out here after 54 holes to be able to claw back?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: I don't know. I haven't thought about that. I think the number's pretty big though. This is a golf course where there's water on a good handful of holes, you can go on a stretch of bogey, bogey, bogey. They can catch you quick. It's one of those golf courses that just nothing comes easy. The easy holes that guys are making birdies aren't necessarily always easy just because you see birdies. Like, we're hitting quality golf shots to make those. So, I don't know. I really don't know. It's at least a handful.

Q. Have you played much with Daniel kind of pre his back issues and post?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: I haven't played with him as much recently. I played a good amount with him on TOUR just in pairings early on in my career. But's great player. When he's getting going, obviously it shows.

Q. Would he be one of maybe the more confident guys out here. I think about the quote that he said a couple years ago at RSM, where a 10th of his game is better than some guys out here. Is that the confidence that you kind of have to have?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, I think we're all confident in our own way, right. We all have our egos. You have to have an ego in some regards to be able to go out here and complete. He's one that will vocalize it and I think we all know that and there's nothing wrong with that.