![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/zero_taper_1000x600-700x420.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWhich brings us to Collin Morikawa, whose particular talents \u2013 notably his state-of-the art iron play \u2013 seem ideally suited to the precise questions asked by the course Pete Dye crafted out of north Florida swampland.<\/p>\n
While the watery three-hole finish understandably draws the eyeballs and imaginations, every hole at the Stadium Course can be like a microcosm of the bigger palate, a razor\u2019s edge of both opportunity and catastrophe.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where Morikawa, whose game is defined by the reliability of his ball striking, factors in at this Players Championship. His career record around the Stadium Course doesn\u2019t inspire fireworks \u2013 his T10 last year was his first top-10 in five starts \u2013 but he is on the short list of players trending hot at the moment.<\/p>\n
His victory at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am last month was his first in more than two years and he has followed it up with consecutive top-seven finishes. For the statistically inclined, Morikawa is fifth on tour in strokes gained approach and eighth in strokes gained overall.<\/p>\n
A perpetual tinkerer with his swing mechanics, Morikawa has found his comfort zone again and his results, particularly the win at Pebble Beach, have reinforced his confidence.<\/p>\n
Morikawa ranks outside the top 100 in strokes gained putting but his switch to a mallet-style putter prior to Pebble Beach has seemingly made the hole look bigger to him.<\/p>\n
This could be Morikawa\u2019s moment at the Players Championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a weird golf course because there\u2019s so much that you have to do right,\u201d Morikawa said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I love it. I think it\u2019s a ball-striking golf course.\u201d<\/p>\n
A perpetual tinkerer with his swing mechanics, Morikawa has found his comfort zone again and his results, particularly the victory at Pebble Beach, have reinforced his confidence.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2264973786-700x467.jpg\")
Collin Morikawa ranks outside the top 100 in strokes gained putting, and he has changed putters. Mike Ehrmann, Getty Images<\/p>\n
Some of the improved form is due, Morikawa believes, to weight he\u2019s gained since last season. He is about eight pounds heavier than he was last year and feels physically stronger.<\/p>\n
Morikawa has not directly chased more distance but his accuracy has typically offset any length disadvantage.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of it has just had to do with my body. It hasn\u2019t really been a mindset. I\u2019m going to continue to be hard on myself. I\u2019m going to continue to find the things I want to keep getting better at,\u201d Morikawa said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do have to realize, like when I\u2019m not playing great I can still put together scores. But a lot of it comes back after I peel the layers farther and farther back to where, like, from the time I step on property, like do I feel comfortable with my body and myself and going out and playing golf?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think 2024 is the best example of that \u2026 where I put together a lot of great scores, put together a lot of great four-round scores essentially, but I just never felt comfortable because I always tried to Band-Aid things.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was good at Band-Aiding them. I was good at finding ways. But for me to go out and try and win, I think I can only put so many of those little Band-Aids on. I really have to find the basic structures of who I am and how I play golf.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then you go down another rabbit hole and you keep going down these rabbit holes, and eventually you end up digging yourself a grave, unfortunately.\u201d \u2013 Collin Morikawa<\/p>\n
Morikawa\u2019s self-evaluation and willingness to explore technical rabbit holes doesn\u2019t compare with Viktor Hovland\u2019s curiosity but there are similarities they have discussed with each other. The success that seemed to come early \u2013 Morikawa won the 2020 PGA Championship and the 2021 Open Championship \u2013 established a level that has proven difficult to maintain.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2264947735-406x700.jpg\")
Morikawa strides with confidence these days. Mike Ehrmann, Getty Images<\/p>\n
At times, Morikawa has gotten in his own way.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re always trying to tweak things. You\u2019re always trying to improve,\u201d Morikawa said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say I\u2019m still a much better golfer now just because I\u2019ve learned a lot more and I think I know how to just manage myself. I had my tendencies. I knew how to fix those tendencies; whereas last year, two years ago, three years ago, the tendencies were creeping in, but they were creeping in for maybe different reasons. \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cThen you start thinking like, man, like what\u2019s wrong? And then you go down another rabbit hole and you keep going down these rabbit holes, and eventually you end up digging yourself a grave, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morikawa has dug himself out and, set to become a father for the first time in May, he has a refreshed approach entering the biggest event of the year to this point. While he wouldn\u2019t get pulled into the discussion about whether the Players Championship should have major championship status, Morikawa wants what he does not yet have.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know this whole debate on major, not a major, I think, you ask any collegiate golfer, ask any junior golfer, like they obviously want to win the four majors, but you want to win the Players,\u201d Morikawa said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to finish off my career and look back one day and say I won the Players Championship. It\u2019s a tournament you want to win. So I put it very, very high up there in the list of things I want to get done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Top: Collin Morikawa\u2019s sharp iron play is a plus at TPC Sawgrass. Photo: Orlando Ramirez, Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA | Among the axioms attached to the Players Championship, there is the mostly true…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,38616,755,1747,261934,85,261935],"class_list":["post-533099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-collin-morikawa","tag-golf","tag-pga-tour","tag-players-championship","tag-sports","tag-tpc-sawgrass"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}