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Collin Morikawa hits his second shot on No. 9 during the first round of the 2026 Masters. (David Cannon\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
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Written by Paul Hodowanic<\/p>\n
AUGUSTA, Ga. \u2013 Collin Morikawa wasn\u2019t confident he would make contact with his tee shot when he started his Tuesday practice round. That\u2019s how far down the mental rabbit hole Morikawa has fallen as he continues to recover from the aftereffects of back spasms that pulled him out of THE PLAYERS Championship last month. Morikawa said Thursday that his back no longer hurts, but the spasms left debilitating mental scars \u2013 not physical ones \u2013 that he\u2019s still trying to overcome.<\/p>\n
That he managed a 2-over 74 at the first round of the Masters was something he could be proud of.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, it’s probably the toughest round I’ve ever played,\u201d an exasperated Morikawa said afterward. \u201cI don’t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morikawa\u2019s return to competitive golf has undergone more lumps than he anticipated. When he withdrew from THE PLAYERS after just one hole of his first round, he spoke as if he understood the issue. He said he had experienced it before and knew how to react. Nearly a month out from the injury, Morikawa is still struggling<\/a>, painting an unflattering picture of the ailment\u2019s long tail.<\/p>\n To be clear: Morikawa isn\u2019t in pain, but he\u2019s still uncomfortable. Walking is difficult, and he has yet to feel like his legs are fully under him. As a result, the swings he is taking are mostly upper body and lack his normal power. He didn\u2019t hit more than 50 range balls per day in the lead-up to the first round and was well below his baseline of speed when he did. Then there\u2019s the mental block that he has yet to free himself from. Morikawa said he woke up Thursday morning with more nerves than he\u2019s ever felt before a round of golf.<\/p>\n \u201cI’ve never felt this nervous, like, in my life,\u201d he said. \u201cI’ve played in majors. I’ve played in other events. I think it’s a trust factor, right? I think when it happened out on the course at THE PLAYERS, you know, there’s a certain doubt factor of, like, is this going to happen, is this not? \u2026 My head gets in the way, and the head can stop so much.\u201d<\/p>\n Morikawa had no idea what he might shoot. He played nine holes on Tuesday and Wednesday, but Thursday brought new challenges. He wasn\u2019t sure how his body or head would react. He opened with six straight pars before a bogey on the seventh put him over par, where he would stay the rest of the day. He dropped another shot at the ninth, before playing the difficult duo of 10 and 11 in even par (birdie-bogey). He tried to turn the momentum with a birdie at the 13th but followed it with another bogey that dropped him back to 2-over.<\/p>\n \u201cThe mind is a powerful, powerful thing,\u201d Morikawa said. \u201cIt can lead (in) the wrong direction sometimes, and it can lead you in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n Morikawa\u2019s hoping for the latter for three more rounds, though he will need a solid round Friday to avoid an early exit.<\/p>\n \u201cYou never know if you’re going to find some luck and be able to figure something out,\u201d Morikawa said. <\/p>\n *:not(style){overflow:hidden;position:absolute;top:0px;right:0px;bottom:0px;left:0px;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;width:100%;height:100%;}.css-11jnzpa>img,.css-11jnzpa>video{object-fit:cover;}.css-11jnzpa::before{height:0px;content:””;display:block;padding-bottom:66.66666666666666%;}]]> Apr 6, 2026<\/p>\n Morikawa taking it ‘day by day’ as injury leaves Masters status uncertain<\/a>Latest<\/a>![\"Image](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/morikawa-back.jpg\"\/)
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"15H AGO 3 Min Read Latest *:not(style){overflow:hidden;position:absolute;top:0px;right:0px;bottom:0px;left:0px;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;width:100%;height:100%;}.css-g2vo12>img,.css-g2vo12>video{object-fit:cover;}.css-g2vo12::before{height:0px;content:””;display:block;padding-bottom:66.66666666666666%;}@media screen and (min-width: 768px){.css-g2vo12::before{padding-bottom:56.25%;}}]]> Collin Morikawa hits his second shot on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-598180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598180","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=598180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}