When asked for his favorite birdie of the day, Collin Morikawa had plenty to choose from.
He’d carded nine of them – and an eagle – on Saturday at The Sentry, the PGA Tour’s season-opening shootout at Kapalua, where on this day, Morikawa and Hideki Matsuyama were hula-hooping nearly every number on their scorecards. The pair traded 11-under 62s with Matsuyama reaching a PGA Tour record-tying 27 under and Morikawa just a shot back.
But in answering the question, Morikawa didn’t waste any time: It was his birdie at the par-4 16th hole.
Morikawa’s goal this year is to put maximum effort into each shot, so he undoubtedly was pleased with his exactness on his approach shot – a 91-yarder from just off the fairway, which he sized up with caddie J.J. Jakovac in impressive detail.
Check this transcript out:
“The lie just seems like it’s not great,” Morikawa said to Jakovac after walking all the way up to the green and back.
Jakovac: “Could you just hit a 60, and just kind of hit the floaty knuckle ball? I mean, it’s not going to go very far…”
Morikawa: “Floaty knuckle ball, and land it where?”
Jakovac: “Right at the top of the crest.”
Morikawa: “It’s just I’m guessing how it’s gonna be…”
Jakovac: “So, what were you thinking? A 56 and play it lower?
Morikawa: “I’m just thinking play it lower – I don’t know what club – but just play it lower and just try and tumble one up. I want 56 and land it…”
Jakovac: “Perfect. Right at the bottom?”
Morikawa: “Yeah.”
Jakovac: “Cool.”
Morikawa: “I just think 60, I’m hitting it too hard to where it will knuckle, and I’m just guessing.”
Jakovac: “Yeah, you definitely are guessing.”
Morikawa: “Like if this came out spinny, it’s so short, it’s fine.”
Jakovac: “You want to know what the base of that is?”
Morikawa: “Yup.”
Jakovac: “83 to the base. 91 to the hole.”
Morikawa: “I wonder if it lands into that, as long as…”
Jakovac: “You think it has a chance to pop up to the hole?”
Morikawa: “Yeah, I do. The pin isn’t that far over it.”
Jakovac: “All right, let’s see it.”
Morikawa then stepped up and flighted a 56-degree into the slope, his ball then taking one hop in front of the hole and rolling to just a few inches behind it.
“J.J. and I kind of had like different views on how to hit the shot in the first cut,” Morikawa explained later. “I told him how I was going to hit it, exactly how I did, and it was nice to have a little tap in birdie.”
Not that Morikawa didn’t appreciate the communication.
“It’s tough,” he added. “We’ve always had to balance it out because I’m a very feel player when it comes to like hitting iron shots and playing numbers, and he’s like, he likes to think it through, which I think a majority of guys, 150 into the wind, 155. So, it’s just balancing that out. But when we’re on track, and you kind of are able to match ‘em, it’s easy to just pull a club, we’re on same kind of line, and you go from there.”
