Collin Morikawa, You Have Our Attention at THE PLAYERS Championship

It was a tough Sunday afternoon for Collin Morikawa at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He was in command for most of the day at Bay Hill but was passed on the leaderboard after Russell Henley's ridiculous chip-in on the par-5 16th—NBC missing the shot on the broadcast was chef’s kiss. The one-shot loss was just the latest example of his final-round struggles, another opportunity wasted.

“No excuses. Never had any, but always a nice reminder. Honestly though, this one stings,” Morikawa wrote in an Instagram post.

It’s been a while since Morikawa has hoisted some hardware. His last win came at the ZOZO Championship in late 2023 and there’s a long list of close calls on his results page, including a runner-up finish at The Sentry to open this season.

Since his win in Japan, Morikawa has 10 top-10 finishes and four silver medals. An incredible stretch for most players on the PGA TOUR, but everyone knows just how good the two-time major champion is, so anything less than the winner's circle just feels disappointing.

And he knows that.

“Sunday night was a lot of frustration. Just looking back over the past year and kind of how I went about my fall was to figure out how to play better in final rounds, and when you don't play well and you don't close it out, you're like, how do we go back to the drawing board? It's not really rip everything off and start over, but there's just little things, right?... I love being in that position,” Morikawa said during his pre-tournament press conference at TPC Sawgrass.

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“Like, I don't take it for granted because you just never know. But it was frustrating Sunday night. I have to get over it. I mean, I'm back on my two feet; I'm trying to figure out how to play my best golf here for this week…I'm going to think about it. I know what happened. I fully am aware of how it played out. But I just have to move on and I have to learn from it. I have to keep getting better. Like I always say, like, you know, why not win this week?”

Yeah, why not? THE PLAYERS Championship is where ball-strikers go to thrive and not many in the world are doing that better than Morikawa at the moment. He’s 37th in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee—a great number for a player without elite distance. The 28-year old is also 10th in SG: Approach, and second in SG: Tee to Green. Since the tournament moved back to March, four of the five winners were ranked first in SG: Tee to Green for the week—shout out Justin Ray for the stat—so it’s easy to like his chances.

But his history at Sawgrass isn’t great. Outside of a T-13 finish in 2023, Morikawa missed the cut in 2022 and finished outside the top 40 in 2021 and 2024. Not exactly a resume that inspires confidence.

However, I can’t wait to see how he responds on Thursday. Sunday stung, he said so himself. It’d be easy to sulk in the loss, to feel bad for yourself. But his game is in a great spot. Even his caddie, Jonathan Jakovac, said he hasn’t seen Morikawa hit irons like this in years. His patented cut is in full flight and his elite ball-striking is going to be fun to watch around Pete Dye’s masterpiece.

This week is another opportunity for Morikawa to show he hasn’t gone anywhere, that he’s still a problem anytime he tees it up.

Losing out on Arnold Palmer’s red cardigan was a tough pill to swallow, but adding a title at golf’s fifth major and the TOUR’s flagship event would all but take care of it.

Let’s see what you got, Collin.