Collin Morikawa carried more than a golf bag on Thursday at Augusta National. A month after a back injury halted his season mid-swing at TPC Sawgrass, the world No. 7 returned to competitive golf at the Masters. Seven shots behind the defending champion, Morikawa is T40 after opening with a 2-over 74. The scorecard number seemed secondary to his post-round revelations.

“It’s probably the toughest round I’ve played,” Morikawa told the media. “I’m just fighting. It’s a battle. I don’t think I’ve been able to get comfortable out there and trust the entire body. It’s manageable, but it’s challenging. Walking has been the hardest part.”

Six weeks ago, Morikawa suffered back spasms during a practice swing at The PLAYERS Championship. As a result, he had to withdraw after just one hole. He then skipped the Valero Texas Open last week because his back still wasn’t ready. Overall, before the Masters, it was a month without golf.

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Notably, the injuries have also affected Morikawa in the past. Back in 2021 at the Tokyo Olympics, he pulled a lower back muscle during the first round after hitting from heavy rough. He played through it and finished T4, but the seeds of a recurring problem were already there.

Two years later, at the 2023 Memorial Tournament, back spasms during pre-round stretching forced him to withdraw before the final round, sitting just two shots off the lead after 54 holes. That withdrawal stung because a potential win was right there for the taking. So when the golfer talks about trust issues with his body now, this is the third chapter of the same story, except this time it’s happening at Augusta.

What makes his situation even more complicated is that the struggle has shifted.

“It’s not so much the back anymore,” Morikawa clarified. “The legs just don’t feel comfortable right now. They don’t feel strong like they’re underneath me.”

The 29-year-old said that since his swing depends significantly on lower-body drive, he has been making up for it with his upper body, and it is messing up the rhythm he has been working on for years.

Three days before the tournament, the 2x major champ had already flagged the mental side of this battle.

“When you hurt yourself swinging, it’s a completely different beast because you just don’t know,” he said Monday. “There’s a little bit of a commitment, trust issue.”

That trust deficit showed up in his nerves too. “I’ve never felt this nervous in my life. I’ve played in majors,” Collin Morikawa said. “When it happened at the Players, there’s a certain doubt factor of, is this going to happen again?”

Despite all of this, Morikawa still managed to make par on his first six holes, picking up two birdies alongside four bogeys. His Masters record, four straight top-15 finishes, including a tie for third in 2024, proves he knows how to navigate Augusta. Injury aside, he arrived at this major on the back of a strong 2026 season featuring a win at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February and top-10 finishes at both the Genesis Invitational and Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Now, the question remains whether a limited version of Collin Morikawa will be sufficient to elevate him 40 spots over the next three rounds.

Collin Morikawa’s Masters Hopes Spark Divided Opinions Among Analysts

Before Morikawa even hit the first tee on Thursday, the golf world had already divided opinions about him. Brandel Chamblee said on his podcast before the tournament that Morikawa was still a favorite, despite his injury. He said that Morikawa’s record at Augusta was enough to make him a serious contender.

“You can’t look at his record there without giving him a nod,” he said.

Robby Kalland, a golf writer for CBS, had a different view. Kalland called Morikawa a “star who definitely won’t win” just a day before Round 1. He said that Morikawa’s long break and admission that he couldn’t hit certain shots made him too risky at a course that required precise ball-striking.

Then came Thursday’s 74. It didn’t fully prove either analyst right or wrong, but it did confirm that Collin Morikawa is currently operating well below his ceiling. Whether that ceiling rises over the weekend is the only question that matters.