{"id":729924,"date":"2026-06-11T15:43:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T15:43:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/729924\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T15:43:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T15:43:16","slug":"new-dad-collin-morikawa-more-positive-on-his-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/729924\/","title":{"rendered":"New Dad Collin Morikawa &#8216;More Positive&#8217; On His Return"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"elk-7fae146a-c045-474a-b75e-ddbb5e4f5a21\">After an extended break and becoming a father for the first time, we could see a more relaxed Collin <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.golfmonthly.com\/tag\/collin-morikawa\" data-auto-tag-linker=\"true\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.golfmonthly.com\/tag\/collin-morikawa\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.golfmonthly.com\/tag\/collin-morikawa\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Morikawa<\/a> as he tees it up at the <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.golfmonthly.com\/news\/rbc-canadian-open-tee-times-rounds-1-2\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.golfmonthly.com\/news\/rbc-canadian-open-tee-times-rounds-1-2\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.golfmonthly.com\/news\/rbc-canadian-open-tee-times-rounds-1-2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">RBC Canadian Open.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Morikawa last played at <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.golfmonthly.com\/news\/8-takeaways-from-the-2026-pga-championship\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.golfmonthly.com\/news\/8-takeaways-from-the-2026-pga-championship\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.golfmonthly.com\/news\/8-takeaways-from-the-2026-pga-championship\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the PGA Championship<\/a>, and while being off the course to welcome his first born he&#8217;s also managed to rest his troublesome back injury.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"elk-seasonal\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-7fae146a-c045-474a-b75e-ddbb5e4f5a21-2\">The two-time Major champion admits he hasn&#8217;t had much recovery sleep thanks to his new arrival, something which he&#8217;s really noticed when coming away for the first time back on the PGA Tour &#8211; and having such a restful sleep away from home!<\/p>\n<p>The &#8216;nappy factor&#8217; in golf is real as players often have a bounce in form when becoming parents for the first time &#8211; which is partly attributed to golf no longer being the most important thing in life.<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-227f955d-1125-443f-acaa-a2a77d5422e9\">Morikawa has acknowledged this fact, with his priorities now shifting to his family, and as a previously pretty intense player out on the course that could unlock something in his game on his return.<\/p>\n<p>            You may like<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A lot of people on tour have given me advice, a lot of friends,&#8221; said Morikawa. &#8220;And just a different perspective on life, I think. I&#8217;m just enjoying every day.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I know at the same time I still have a job to do when I&#8217;m out here and that&#8217;s what&#8217;s great kind of being back. But at the same time when I&#8217;m out there playing you&#8217;re kind of playing a little bit differently, your mind&#8217;s in a different spot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"newsletter-form__strapline\">Subscribe to the Golf Monthly newsletter to stay up to date with all the latest tour news, equipment news, reviews, head-to-heads and buyer\u2019s guides from our team of experienced experts.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think I&#8217;m a lot more positive out there and hopefully I can kind of just allow my body to relax and go out and play golf and enjoy it again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.24%;\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/w6r4yLLxLDtWwbvPBMTPQV.jpg\" alt=\"Collin Morikawa with the AT&amp;amp;T Pebble Beach Pro-Am trophy\"   loading=\"lazy\" data-new-v2-image=\"true\" data-original-mos=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/w6r4yLLxLDtWwbvPBMTPQV.jpg\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/w6r4yLLxLDtWwbvPBMTPQV.jpg\" class=\"rounded-[var(--image--border-radius,0)]\"\/>\n<\/p>\n<p>Collin Morikawa won the AT&amp;T Pebble Beach Pro-Am this year<\/p>\n<p>(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-ad4f7bf1-8402-42f9-9c40-b94eac1021cc\">Morikawa hasn&#8217;t practiced much such Aronimink, when he played still being troubled with a back problem that forced him to <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.golfmonthly.com\/news\/collin-morikawa-forced-out-of-players-championship-with-injury\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.golfmonthly.com\/news\/collin-morikawa-forced-out-of-players-championship-with-injury\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.golfmonthly.com\/news\/collin-morikawa-forced-out-of-players-championship-with-injury\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">withdraw from The Players Championship.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It somewhat derailed a fine season, as he <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.golfmonthly.com\/news\/live\/at-t-pebble-beach-pro-am-leaderboard-live-updates-2026\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.golfmonthly.com\/news\/live\/at-t-pebble-beach-pro-am-leaderboard-live-updates-2026\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.golfmonthly.com\/news\/live\/at-t-pebble-beach-pro-am-leaderboard-live-updates-2026\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">won at Pebble Beach<\/a> and finished T7 at The Masters as part of five completed tournaments in a row finishing no worse than T7.<\/p>\n<p>            What to read next<\/p>\n<p>Morikawa now hopes the time off has helped his back to settle down so he can be physically at his best for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I left the PGA Championship uncomfortable in a way. I&#8217;ve been grinding this kind of back injury since The Players,&#8221; Morikawa added.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It still hadn&#8217;t felt that comfortable. So it was nice to take a full reset. And just focus on other things going on in life. I think after that I&#8217;ve just been able to relax a little bit more.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s still a trust factor that I&#8217;m looking for that I&#8217;m trying to find this week. But it&#8217;s a lot better of a swing than I&#8217;ve been putting on and that&#8217;s for me a positive thing.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think when the body fully is able to kind of have that last little puzzle piece of fully relaxing, I think the game&#8217;s going to be exactly how I want. I still feel like I&#8217;m hitting great shots when I need to. But just the consistency-wise I think if I can build that into this week it will be a great boost into next week.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After an extended break and becoming a father for the first time, we could see a more relaxed&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":729925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-729924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729924","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=729924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/729925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}