Morikawa's Golf Career Is On Course for Success

Collin Morikawa’s fast start as a pro golfer has probably taken a few people by surprise. Morikawa is not one of them. 

Less than a year ago he was a Cal undergrad and top player on the school’s golf team.

Now he is a PGA tour regular with one victory under his belt and is ranked just outside the top 50 in the world heading into this week's Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.

Morikawa is not cocky or arrogant, just confident in his own abilities and aware what he is doing is rare but not unprecedented. “I wouldn’t say surprised,” Morikawa said in a recent phone interview. “Coming right out of college I knew it was going to be difficult. but other guys have done it. It is hard to get your PGA card coming right out of the gate, but it’s been done. If you are mentally prepared and ready for it, it’s doable. I felt that way when I was coming out. I’m not surprised I am really motivated and keep pushing myself, expanding my goals.”

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Morikawa tips his cap

Cal’s only four-time All-American, Morikawa turned pro shortly after leading the Bears to a tenth-place finish in the NCAA Tournament. He found his stellar college career has helped him at the next level.

“Yeah, for sure,” he said. “I was able to figure out what I was going to do time-wise and practice-wise and I was able to play some starts as an amatuer on the PGA tour, the Arnold Palmer Invitational,” he said. “That taught me a lot, how to manage time, be out there working on my game, Just believing in yourself.

“That senior year really helped me prepare for the PGA tour. Doing things on my own. Every golfer’s different, how to spend time out of the course, how to practice.”

Although the other pro golfers are his competitors, Morikawa has also found them to be his friends as well. 

“They have all been very nice. They have all opened up,” he said. “I have really been thankful for that. Out on tour, you don’t know many guys, a small handful if that. It’s so different. In college you are out there, you know everyone, you know all the teams, you know all the coaches. It’s very familiar. That’s not what the PGA tour is. You are not comfortable with everyone out there. You don’t know who everyone is. It is all about getting as comfortable as you can as quickly as you can. 

“The quicker you can do that, the more you are able to work and focus on your goal. Instead of focusing on other little things: ‘Who’s here, who’s there?’ It make things easier, these guys are really nice. Just getting to know them has been really awesome.

The first PGA tournament I played I had dinner with Justin Thomas, Gary Woodland has been awesome to me. I was able to talk to Dustin Rhodes.”

Of course,  Morikawa has been able to connect with fellow Cal alums on the PGA tour such as  Max Homa, James Hahn, Michael Kim, and Byeong Hun.

“Even though when I was in college they showed up every once in a while I have been able to get a lot closer to them, just hang out with them,” Morikawa said..

As a pro he has been consistent and occaisionally sterling witness his victory in Reno and his tie for 35^th at the U.S. Open. Maverick McNealy, the former Stanford golfer who is now a friend of Morikawa’s told PGA.com that, “there are no holes in his game.”

Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Morikawa lines up a putt

Morikawa doubtless appreciates the compliment but feels he has room for improvement. 

“The short game of these guys is just so good, chipping, , pitching, putting,” he said, “Coming into college I really had to work on my putting, and I still do. That has been a focus of mine.

“But it is just keeping everything dialed in. Every single week is different, figuring out what’s on, what’s not on. Tweaking little things here and there. So when you are on the road for a few weeks in a row, you don’t want to get too comfortable with just how you are playing. You want to still figure things out, but you want to be ready just to play golf. You don’t want to think about every swing slot, every technical thing you might be working on.

“To me, it comes down to putting a lot. The driver hasn’t been great.  you’ve got to figure that out the fairways are not that wide and there are thick-cut long roughs, You definitely don’t want to be out of the fairway.”

He graduated in June with a degree in Business Administration and still keeps tabs on how the Bears are doing.

“I followed the Cal golf team in the fall, watched the scores, see who has taken over as the leader. They did lose a good portion of the team from last year.”

Besides Morikawa, the Bears lost K.K. Lambhaust and Sebastian Crampton.

“But I think they are up to the challenge,” he said “They did pretty good over the fall. I wouldn’t say they played their best because I know they can play a lot better. It was a really good start, they have some positives from the fall and they are going to fix all the things they wanted to work on in the offseason.”

Along with with the rest of the Cal community, he reveled in the football season and the victory over Illinois in the Redbox Bowl.

“I definitely followed the football team,” he said. “I wasn’t able to watch the bowl game but I was watching the score throughout. There were some Illinois guys I have been close to who weren’t all that happy.”