{"id":519691,"date":"2026-03-12T19:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T19:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/519691\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T19:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T19:28:08","slug":"collin-morikawa-withdraws-from-the-players-championship-after-one-hole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/519691\/","title":{"rendered":"Collin Morikawa withdraws from The Players Championship after one hole"},"content":{"rendered":"

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Two-time major champion Collin Morikawa took one practice swing and knew his week was over right after it started. He withdrew Thursday from The Players Championship<\/a> after one hole with pain in his lower back.<\/p>\n

Morikawa, the No. 4 player in the world, took a practice swing on the par-5 11th hole and reached for his lower back. He tried to stretch, consulted his trainer and minutes later took a cart ride from an official to the clubhouse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt fine in warm-up. Nothing\u2019s been any signs of back problems,\u201d Morikawa told a PGA Tour official. \u201cTeed it up on 11, and took one practice swing, and I just knew it was gone. I just had the feeling before when it\u2019s happened. And I just, I can\u2019t swing through it. Trust me, I would play if I could. It\u2019s just the worst thing in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morikawa won at Pebble Beach earlier this year, ending a 28-month drought. He was looked upon as among golf\u2019s best performers early in the season, following that Pebble Beach win with a tie for seventh at Riviera and a tie for fifth last week at Bay Hill.<\/p>\n

Morikawa, who spent the offseason primarily working on getting his body stronger, said he has had similar back issues, just not recently. It gave him an idea what was coming.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I even took my practice swing, it\u2019s like a weird, like deja vu thing,\u201d he said. \u201cI took the practice swing and immediately knew. I just couldn\u2019t get through impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said his back felt tender but he could still move around, as long as he wasn\u2019t doing any heavy lifting or swing a golf club.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of know the protocols of what to do and kind of dance around it,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s going to take a little bit of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was the second player to withdraw from The Players. Ryan Fox withdrew<\/a> with an illness before his afternoon tee time. Morikawa was not replaced because he had already started the tournament.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This story corrects that Morikawa had gone 28 months without a win until Pebble Beach.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP golf: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/golf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Two-time major champion Collin Morikawa took one practice swing and knew his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[18940,2822,2808,427,54524,99],"class_list":["post-519691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-collin-morikawa","tag-fl-state-wire","tag-florida","tag-golf","tag-ryan-fox","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}