Collin Morikawa had plenty of thinking to do on the short drive up the coast from Abu Dhabi to Dubai.
The British Open champion had just finished tied for 62nd at the Abu Dhabi Championship on Sunday and the guy with one of the purest swings in golf was concerned.
“I didn’t know where the golf ball was going,” Morikawa said of his tough week on Yas Links when gusts of up to 64kmph caused havoc to a strong field.
So, ahead of the Dubai Desert Classic that starts on Thursday, the No. 2-ranked Morikawa said he has hit the “reset button.”
Deep dive
“I had my agent and my caddie, and we were just literally sitting on the range for hours trying to figure out what to do,” Morikawa said of what he called a “deep dive” on his first day in Dubai.
“We know what’s not working. It’s just trying to get back to my old swing and trying to get back to what I know I can do. So I still have a couple of things I’ve got to work out and feel, but I’m in a much better position right now, at least if I had to go play tomorrow or right now, versus where I was last week.”
“Sometimes you just have to find the centre again. It happens,” he said. “Thankfully I was still able to learn a lot from it and show up this week with a fresh mind and ready to go.”
Coming off a run of five straight top-10 finishes that included a win at the season-ending DP World Tour Championship on the European Tour, Morikawa shot four rounds in the 70s in Abu Dhabi and only made the cut on the number. He was 15 shots off the winner, Thomas Pieters.
