Collin Morikawa and Rory McIlroy are forever linked in Masters Tournament history, thanks to their back-to-back hole-outs on the 18th hole in the final round of the 2022 event.
McIlroy’s birdie capped a final-round 64 and earned him a solo second. Morikawa closed with a 67 for a solo fifth-place finish.
In the moments before he swung his wedge through that white Augusta National sand, Morikawa said he felt this rare confidence.
“I have shots like that where like I think they’re going to go in. Like 18 at Augusta, like when I walked up I was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be really good,'” he said Wednesday ahead of the 2022 RBC Heritage in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. “But you only have a handful of that. Through three years I only had a handful of those shots. They’ve come at pretty good times.”
Another pretty good time was two years ago at the PGA Championship, where he won the first of his two majors. During the final round, he took the outright lead when he holed out from 40 feet on the 14th hole for birdie.
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Looking back, Morikawa says that was another one of those times when he just knew something good was going to happen.
“That one, I walked up to J.J. and I was like, ‘This one’s going in,'” he said of his caddie J.J. Jakovac. “And you can’t, like, you can’t force yourself to do that, you can try and convince yourself, but it’s a different feeling, it’s just like a gut feeling.”
His finish at the 2022 Masters gives him a top-5 in all four of the majors. Monday morning, when the Official World Golf Ranking was updated, he found himself in the No. 2 spot behind Masters champ Scottie Scheffler. (Morikawa is 12th in Golfweek/Sagarin rankings, which was also updated Monday). He’s also up to No. 7 on the money list with $3,502,546 so far this season.
This week, he’s one of five top-10 players in the RBC field, joining No. 5 Cameron Smith, No. 6 Patrick Cantlay, No. 8 Justin Thomas and No. 9 Dustin Johnson.
From Augusta to Hilton Head, it’s time to get right back to competing.
“After a major you’re always drained. When you win you’re even drained even more. And to follow it up the next week it takes a lot out of you, right?,” Morikawa said. “Last week took a lot out of me but I’m fully ready to come out here because I want to get back in the winner’s circle. Seeing what Scottie’s doing over the past couple months it’s really cool to watch that, but I want to be there as well, like I feel like I’m able, if I could put together some good rounds, hopefully we can kind of spark something.”
A year ago, Morikawa played in the final group with eventual RBC champ Stewart Cink. Morikawa ended up tied for seventh. He was T-64 in 2020, his only other appearance in the event.
“We’re looking for that one little spark and this is a course I love the past couple years I’ve come out to play and I think it fits my game.” he said. “Hopefully we can put together four really solid round and be there on Sunday.
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