Collin Morikawa has been battling significant back spasms for a few weeks now. He sustained the injury during the practice round at THE PLAYERS Championship and had to withdraw from the tournament within the first round. Despite the discomfort, he pushed through the Masters Tournament and finished T7th. And now, after scoring a bogey-free four-under 67 at the RBC Heritage, Morikawa has opened up on his injury. 

Talking to the media at Harbour Town, Morikawa said, “I’m not in pain. I know it looked painful, but I’m just very scared, and I’ve never been this scared in my life to go out and play. But I think it’s because it happened on the golf course. I’ve never had any back stuff happen on the golf course. Every time in the gym. Then I’d go out and swing, I’m just saying, do I feel good enough to swing.”

He continued, “I’ve just been so timid and so shy in a way because the buildup was going okay, kind of had a minor setback, and then at the end of the day it was like, I need to tee it up at the Masters. There was a point where it was like, okay, let’s stop pushing to see how far we can get and let’s see what I can just work with. I’ve had back issues over the past three years. We’ve seen it. I’ve just got to find a way to kind of protect it a little bit more.”

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The setback came at the wrong time for Collin Morikawa. He had just won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. And at Augusta, you could see how it affected him. He moved carefully and didn’t fully commit to his swings all week.

So, Morikawa is back in the running, but he admits that he is still not playing at his best, saying that he has been swinging at about “50%” during both The Masters and the RBC Heritage because he is focusing on managing his condition. He also said that he plans to spend some time at home recovering while he works on getting back to full strength.

He said, “I feel like I’m swinging a little bit better in the motion, at least, but I wouldn’t say I’m putting more effort into it because, like I said, I need to be at home to say, ‘Okay, let’s turn up the gears.’ If I do feel a little uncomfortable, at least I’m home, I’m not trying to play a tournament where I essentially need to make it 72 holes.”

Collin Morikawa weighs in on his bogey-free performance at RBC Heritage

Talking about how he felt while swinging at Harbour Town, Morikawa said:

“It was great. Still kind of dinking it around, slapping it. Limited to the shots I can play. But this is a course where I feel comfortable just being able to kind of plot my way around. The misses can’t be as big as last week, which favored me last week, which was very nice. But I kept it in front of me, hit some really, really good-quality iron shots, and yeah, just kind of continued the good play.”

Considering he ended up in the top 10 at Augusta National, while top contestants like Bryson DeChambeau stumbled badly, made it a good event for Morikawa. He even branded it as one of his best tournaments. But this week, he hopes for some good news on Sunday. 

But there’s another factor that’s pushing him towards a win. And that’s his soon-to-come child and thus his motivation to get healthy.

For now, Morikawa is playing a delicate game of chess with his own body. If he can continue to post bogey-free 67s while playing as timid golf, the PGA Tour should be terrified of his prowess.