Collin Morikawa seems to be finding his form over the past few months, with the American in prime position to claim a third Major title in Valhalla.
Firing a second round 65 to follow his first round 66, Morikawa sat two shots clear of the field as the afternoon wave got underway, and the 27-year-old looks to secure a second PGA Championship win since his first in 2020.
Speaking to the media following his second round, Morikawa stated: "I just kept it in front of myself, and look, I've been putting great so far since Augusta, so it's nice to just kind of keep that trend going, and was able to hit a few good close shots, few wedge shots, take advantage of the short holes, the par-5s and for the most part didn't really make any big errors.
"I had belief since day one that I was going to be able to do it and, obviously you want to see the results, but just believing that it's possible and just knowing that it's going to happen. I talked before I won the ZOZO Championship last year, I talked about I know I'm going to win again, it's just a matter of when. I know I still have it in me, and that's what's exciting is that, after Augusta, it sucked to finish like that and it sucked to lose to Scottie, but at the end of the day, I knew I had three more Majors coming up and to prep for that and get things as sharp as possible and just come out strong. It's obviously nice to get off to this start."
Producing a third place finish at Augusta National in April, the World No.13 followed it with a top 10 at the RBC Heritage, as well as two top 25s in his last two events. However, despite the rise in form, attention was on Scottie Scheffler's dramatic morning at Valhalla, which saw the World No.1 arrested for an incident regarding traffic flow instructions, as well as the unfortunate death of one of the PGA Championship's vendor workers.
Speaking about his experience in the early hours of the morning, Morikawa stated: "I think I snuck my way in pretty quickly. I didn't have a delay -- I think I was probably one of the last few players to get in without any chaos. Kind of talked my way through. But yeah, first off, it's unfortunate for the person that did pass away earlier today. I don't think that's getting talked about enough, or at all. My wishes and prayers are within that family's blessings.
"I woke up at 5:00am today and, I'll be honest, I was a little tired. As the day-morning tee times, you slowly wake up. But you had that jolt of energy as a lot of things were bouncing back and forth. By the time I went into the workout trailer, I knew I had to focus and not worry about anyone else. It's very hard to do that when things are going on around you, and trust me, a lot of things happen sometimes and people don't know about it, but I have a job to do this week and a decent position through 36, no matter how things play out today."
