PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 12, 2026

Collin Morikawa

Aronimink Golf Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: 2020 PGA champion Collin Morikawa joins us now at the 108th PGA Championship. Collin, welcome to Aronimink and your seventh PGA Championship. What are your thoughts on the golf course and your game heading into Thursday's opening round?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: First time I've been here. Very, very northeast style golf course, I think, just the way everything's designed. Fairways are fairly fair. Rough's up this week. It will all kind of come down to being able to make up-and-downs when you are out of position and just making some 20-, 25-footers, I think.

I think a lot of the greens out here are really good, and you can kind of putt out to the edges where the pins will be.

Overall, still kind of dealing with some back stuff, honestly. Like, I wish I was 100 percent healthy. The body doesn't feel bad, just it's uncomfortable, and there's a trust factor I'm kind of having to deal with, which is -- I've never had to deal with it. I can't imagine wanting anyone to deal with it because it's just a very weird feeling of not trusting the body and yet knowing that things are going to be okay. So it's just taking it day by day, doing what I need to do.

Then go out, look, it's four days of golf, one at a time, and I'm going to find a way to hopefully play some great golf starting Thursday.

Q. Collin, just based off the times you've played golf out here in this region, what are your perceptions of Philadelphia golf, its culture, and then even just the city in general?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: I think last year for the Truist was one of the first times I really played out here in Philadelphia, and I think it was amazing. I think we saw a lot more fans than we do in some cities that we go to. The course was amazing, just a great-condition golf course. I think, when you think of northeast golf, it's always well maintenanced, great greens, really smooth surfaces, and usually some long rough.

Not necessarily the longest of golf courses, and I didn't really know what to expect until I got out here, and it doesn't play that long. I think a few of the finishing holes out here, 15, 17, 18, play fairly on the long side, but manageable, I think, for a lot of the field.

Q. If you could give one piece of advice to young golfers and their parents, what would it be?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: As an almost parent to be, I would say honestly just like let your kid have fun. Let him go and do it and find something that they enjoy, any aspect, if it's that sport. So like with golf, if they enjoy the driving range, let them go on the driving range. If it's being out on the course, go out there on the course with them.

I think in today's sports a lot of these parents are thinking you've got to be the best at 10, you've got to be the best at 13. Everyone has their own little journey and their own little path, and it's just continuing to find your love for the sport.

I think a lot of us here this week love it more than we ever have. I think that's the reason why we continue to do it and we're very lucky to do it.

So it's just finding that true passion and finding those things are never someone else's reason. It has to be your own.

Q. Congratulations on the almost fatherhood. We're in the middle of a run where we have four majors and five Signature Events. That's a lot of high-profile events in a very short period of time. What is your take on the packed schedule? Do you have thoughts on how it might be improved or worked better for your sake?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, it's an interesting thought, I think, that people try harder at Signature Events or try harder -- you know, everyone's trying harder at the majors, but it's never really been my motivation or reasoning to change something up when other things have been working.

I think it is a packed schedule. That's just the nature of what we do. We play a lot of golf from essentially January through August. But I don't think -- I think with Signature Events, the thought of like, man, like, I'm going up against these guys versus we look back five, six years ago, where you might have been going up against most of the same guys, plus another 50 or so guys. For me every week's a grind and every week is a new test. Every week is going to be a new battle on what's going to go well for you, what's not, if you're playing well, if you're not playing well.

I think it's just building the right schedule for yourself and not looking at it so much like, Oh, man, we've got big after big after big. I think all events matter to some degree. They can change anyone's career, if you win an opposite-field event or win a regular-season event or if you win a Signature. They all matter. They're all big events in that situation.

For me, even taking last week off, even though that wasn't really the plan, it's so big to just be able to reset sometimes and then come out and say, Oh, man, I'm ready to go.

Q. You've had some very consistent play amidst the injuries and adversity this season. What has that taught you as a player and a person recently?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: I think the mental game -- we always talk about it in golf, that the mental game is a big aspect of it, and it truly is. You're able to push yourself that much farther. Trust me, it was very, very uncomfortable to play the Masters and very uncomfortable to play the week after at Hilton Head, but you just have to keep pushing.

Whatever the next week or weeks, I'm going to have to just breathe it out after this. Like I will do everything it takes to play some great golf, like I said, starting Thursday for four days.

I've got my team. We're going to make sure we do it all. But I think over the last month and a half, it's just shown that there are many, many different ways to play golf. You obviously wish you were healthy, that you could just go out there and see target, hit target, but it doesn't mean that you're out of the tournament.

Q. And you mentioned the mind is a powerful tool as well too. Who is on your team specifically that kind of helps keep your mind sharp amidst everything going on with the back?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, it's everyone. I've got great physios at home, I've got a great physio on the road. Rick Sessinghaus and I have been working for quite some time and talking about the mental game and finding ways to feel comfortable out there. He's a big, big proponent and component of me being able to play out here, so I owe a lot to him. But I owe a lot of credit to Mark Urbanek, my caddie. At the Masters we were doing things that just didn't make sense from simply like him handing me my water bottle. I think it's ridiculous for him to hand me my water bottle, but if it was going to save me one extra bend that was going to make me uncomfortable, he's going to do it. So I give him a lot of credit over the last few months of sticking with me through the chaotic things I'm asking for.

Q. When you heard Greg introduce you as the 2020 PGA champion, what goes through your mind? Do you think, my God, it seems like yesterday or I'm already --

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, it seems like a long time ago. It does. Even the two I've won, it seems like a long time. I felt like I've played a lot of golf in between them, given myself a few chances here and there.

Yeah, it's a long time, and you don't forget the win, and you don't forget that you can do it, but I think that's just more motivation to go out there and knock another one out. And just, when you watch guys like Scottie and Rory and even Xander in '24 do what they did, it's like when it's going well, things are easy. So that '20-'21 stretch, golf was pretty easy.

But you go through life, and that's part of life, and you figure it out. You show up this week just kind of looking back on those rounds and weeks where you were able to get the trophy and finish on top, and you say, Yeah, like let's just let things play out and kind of do everything you can to give yourself the best opportunity for that again.

Q. Collin, you were mentioning Augusta, and I wonder if sometimes not being able to control your body or letting your body do whatever it can, you get a pleasant surprise, no? There's a lesson in that in a way?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, there is. I think certain golf courses allow for that. Weirdly, like Augusta we think of a big hitter's golf course, a big golf course. But there's a lot of slopes, so I can use a lot of slope in that way. With the shot shaping, I just was so accepting of how things are going to go, and it's so hard to do that, I think even in life, is just accepting that's just the nature of it.

I've been able to take that into it. It will be interesting to see whether I get frustrated or not considering that the body feels a little bit better. I hope to take that mentality I had at Augusta and just continue that into the rest of the year, because that's a mentality I think the best have. That's how, for me at least, I feel like I'm going to play great golf.

Q. In connection with that, if you look back at St. George's or look back at Harding Park, I wonder what was the mindset then? It was a strange time in the world in general. Can you replicate that now?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: It was, yeah. I think I can definitely replicate that. I think, when you look at those final rounds, I think I was bogey-free for both of them, yet I hit some terrible shots throughout both rounds. The first hole at Harding Park the final round, I hit a wedge shot straight in the bunker from the middle of the fairway, and I'm accepting of that.

I think that's the mindset I had at the Masters because I knew I was going to hit bad shots, but that's the mindset you have to have if you're going to come out on top on Sunday.

It's a small switch. It's not something you can force and say, man, you're going to be okay with it, but it's a reaction. It's how the prep goes into the week. It's how you start a Thursday morning when you wake up leading into that day that just you're going to let things play out. It's hard to do that, but it's just surrounding yourself and doing the right things to lead up into that first hole.