When asked about his favorite bird of the day, Collin Morikawa had plenty to choose from.
On Saturday at The Sentry, the PGA Tour’s season-opening shootout at Kapalua, where Morikawa and Hideki Matsuyama were hula-hooping almost every number on their scorecards that day, he got nine of them – and heads. The two traded an 11-under 62, with Matsuyama tying the PGA Tour record at 27-under and Morikawa just missing a shot.
But to answer the question, Morikawa wasted no time: It was his birdie on the par-4 16th hole.
Morikawa’s goal this year is to put maximum effort into every shot, so he was undoubtedly pleased with his accuracy on the approach shot – a 91-yarder from just off the fairway that he assessed with caddy JJ Jakovac in impressive detail.
Check this entry:
“It doesn’t seem like a great lie,” Morikawa said to Jakovac after walking all the way to the green and back.
Jakovac: “Could you just hit 60 and just hit the floating ball? I mean, it won’t go very far…”
Morikawa: “Floating ankle ball and where do you land it?”
Jakovac: “At the very top of the peak.”
Morikawa: “I’m just guessing what it’s going to be like…”
Jakovac: “So what were you thinking about? 56 and play lower?
Morikawa: “I’m just thinking about playing lower – I don’t know which club – but just playing lower and trying to raise one. I want 56 and I will land…”
Jakovac: “Perfect. At the bottom?”
Morikawa: “Yes.”
Jakovac: “Great.”
Morikawa: “I think 60, I’m hitting too hard to where the knuckle will be, and I’m just guessing.”
Jakovac: “Yes, I’m sure you’re guessing.”
Morikawa: “If it came out spiny, it’s so short, it’s okay.”
Jakovac: “You want to know what the basis for this is?”
Morikawa: “Yes.”
Jakovac: “83 on base. 91 to the hole.”
Morikawa: “I wonder if it will come to that, if…”
Jakovac: “Do you think he has a chance of falling into a hole?”
Morikawa: “Yes, I know. Szpilka is not too far from it.
Jakovac: “Okay, let’s see.”
Morikawa then rose and flew at a 56-degree angle into the slope, his ball making one jump short of the hole and rolling just a few inches behind it.
“JJ and I had different views on how to hit the shot on the first cut,” Morikawa later explained. “I told him how I was going to putt it, exactly how I did it, and it was nice to have a little birdie putt.”
Not that Morikawa didn’t appreciate this communication.
“It’s difficult,” he added. “We always had to balance it because I’m a very sensitive player when it comes to hitting iron shots and playing the numbers, and he likes to think it through, which I think most guys do, 150 upwind, 155. It’s just balancing it. But when we’re on track and you’re kind of able to match them, it’s easy to just pull the stick, we’re on the same page and we go from there.
