Collin Morikawa’s caddie change reminiscent of 1 stunning past switch

FLOURTOWN, Pa. — Collin Morikawa needed a change. Something felt off. Although ask the two-time major winner what it was, and he can’t quite articulate it.

Regardless, Morikawa’s need for a vibe-shift led him to part ways with long-time caddie J.J. Jakovac and hire Joe Greiner to replace him.

“It’s hard because you can ask any caddie, and they say they’re going to do this, do that, but you don’t really know until you’re out there,” Morikawa said Thursday, after his first round with Greiner on the bag at the Truist Championship at Philadelphia Cricket Club. “What’s great, when I talked to Joe, is that we’re always willing to learn, how do we get better? I think [J.J] is still amazing at what he does, but it’s always pushing the boundaries of like, what can we do better tomorrow? How do we improve? What do we continue to do great and learn from that. That’s kind of how I’ve always looked at it. I’m very excited about the future.”

Morikawa has been playing good golf this season. He was runner-up at The Sentry and the Arnold Palmer Invitational. But good isn’t good enough when you’re a player with Morikawa’s resume and talent.

 “Look, anything new is going to be interesting, and it’s going to be a learning curve, but at the end of the day, right now I have to take full accountability of how I’m describing shots to him, how we’re going through it,” Morikawa said after posting a seven-under-63 in Round 1. “It’s not as simple as 150 yards, hit it 155. Like, I don’t do numbers like that.

“I just have to take accountability for what I’m doing out there.”

That might sound familiar.

Eight years ago, another top player split with his veteran caddie after years of success, hoping for a spark for a similar reason.

It was 2017, and Rory McIlroy had just parted with long-time caddie JP Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald had been McIlroy’s caddie since 2008. The pair won four majors together and carded 22 worldwide victories. McIlroy spent 95 weeks as World No. 1 with Fitzgerald on the bag.

Then, a change was needed. Enter Harry Diamond.

“I have been putting this line out there for a while that I’m trying to take ownership of my game a little bit more and trying to take more responsibility,” McIlroy said at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational after parting with Fitzgerald in 2017. “I’ve been walking the course with my own yardage book this week and trying to sort more things out myself.

“That was the decision I came to in the end,” McIlroy continued later. “I was getting very hard on him on the golf course and I didn’t want to treat him like that. I thank JP for everything, he knows how much I think of him and what we’ve achieved together, but at the end of the day it was a change I needed to make. I got to the point where if I didn’t play a good shot or made a wrong decision I was getting more frustrated at him than I was at myself. I’d much rather be angry at myself for making a wrong decision than being angry at him.”

McIlroy finished in a tie for fifth during his first event with Diamond on the bag. Their first win together didn’t come until the following March at the 2018 Arnold Palmer Invitational. Since then, McIlroy and Diamond have won 21 more times worldwide, including the 2025 Masters, where Diamond’s value was evident as McIlroy went to a playoff with Justin Rose.

“After scoring, Harry and I were walking to the golf cart to bring us back to the 18th tee, and he said to me, ‘Well, Pal, we would have taken this on Monday morning.’” McIlroy said after completing the career Grand Slam. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, absolutely we would have.’ That was an easy reset. He basically said to me, look, you would have given your right arm to be in a playoff at the start of the week. So that sort of reframed it a little bit for me.”

Morikawa hasn’t won since the 2023 Zozo Championship. He had cracks last year at the Masters, PGA Championship, Memorial and the Genesis Scottish Open. No wins. A few more near misses led to a search for a new feel on the bag.

There’s a debate among golf fans about how much of an impact a caddie has on an elite player’s score. Morikawa believes a good caddie can save him “a handful of shots” during a week, which can be the difference between winning and a top-five finish.

For Morikawa, the caddie switch will enable him to return to how he used to play the game. It’s about more than just numbers on a scorecard, as was McIlroy’s.

“A few weeks ago, I might have just stepped up and hit a pitching wedge,” Morikawa said. “Where today I’m really trying to describe the shot in as much detail, and that’s how I’ve always played. It’s just going back to that.”

There can be a freedom in returning to or rediscovering something that was once a formative part of the person and the golfer you become.

Morikawa’s search to rediscover it led him to Greiner, a desire to take ownership of his game and what he hopes is the evolution he has been trying to find.