AUGUSTA, Ga. — Collin Morikawa is one solid round from winning the Masters and the third leg of the career Grand Slam. Morikawa shot 3-under 69 at Augusta National Golf Club on Saturday and sits alone in second place, one stroke behind 54-hole leader Scottie Scheffler.
Chasing down the world No. 1 is a tall task but given Morikawa’s recent form, he said he’s thrilled to be in the hunt for the green jacket.
“It was a little iffy coming in on Monday. But I spent a lot of time on the range on Monday, and (my caddie) and I gave ourselves a high-five midway through our session because we found something that made sense in our heads, worked. And that’s the thought we’ve continued throughout the rest of this week,” he said.
Morikawa refused to divulge his swing secret that has his iron game producing better results. Morikawa parted ways with his longtime swing coach Rick Sessinghaus in October and joined up with Mark Blackburn, but after paying quick dividends with a win at the Zozo Championship in Japan, that relationship has proven to be short-lived. Morikawa said he’s been hitting “aimlessly” for months, and he’s lost strokes in his approach game in each of his last three starts. The putter hasn’t been much better. He switched to a TaylorMade Spider mallet ahead of the Masters and said it felt great heading into the tournament.
Collin Morikawa putts on the No. 18 green during the third round of the 2024 Masters Tournament. (Photo: Katie Goodale-USA TODAY Network)
“Felt better than I’ve kind of felt all year. But sometimes you don’t know how it’s going to feel in the tournament,” Morikawa said.
During the first round, which stretched into Friday morning, Morikawa realized it wasn’t the club for him. He couldn’t wait to finish his first round and make a putter switch.
“I just wanted to get the putter out of my hands because I couldn’t get comfortable with it,” he said. “And thankfully I had a backup, a copy of what I’ve putted with in the past, pretty much the past year and a half. Felt like old times and nice to have that in the back again.”
It’s a lot of change between a putter, a coach and a new swing thought but so far it’s holding up.
“I had to search. You have to find something. You know, where my game was last week, if I took it out here, first few days, I probably wouldn’t be here. I probably wouldn’t be playing today. So you have to find something,” he…
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