Collin Morikawa on opening 74 at Masters: ‘Toughest round I’ve ever played’
He has a round in the books after a month away from golf to rest his ailing back, which is progress for Collin Morikawa. He just didn’t expect the return to be so nerve-wracking.
“Honestly, it’s probably the hardest round I’ve ever played,” the two-time major champion said after an over-par 74 in the first round of the Masters tournament on Thursday. “You know, I’m just fighting. It’s like a battle. I don’t think I’ve been able to get comfortable out there and trust the whole body. So I’m proud of the way things turned out. You know, yeah, expectations are kind of thrown out the window right now.”
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Morikawa, who won at Pebble Beach in February with a score of -22, had gone 30 days without competing before heading to Augusta National. He experienced back pain during a practice swing on the second hole in the first round of The Players Championship on March 12.
“I think it’s a confidence factor, right? I think when it happened on the Players course, you know, there’s a certain doubt factor: Is this going to happen, right?” » said Morikawa. “I’ve been hitting balls for a week and a half, but not comfortably. In fact, it’s more like my head is bothering me, and the head can stop so much. When I threw on No. 1 on Tuesday (for a practice round), I mean, honestly, I didn’t know if I was going to make contact.”
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The good news is he didn’t feel any back pain Thursday. But now there are other problems. Walking was the hardest part, he said.
“It’s just a matter of trust,” he said. “My legs don’t want to believe that this is going to support the back and the rest of the body. When it feels wobbly, and luckily this course is firm. The legs just don’t feel comfortable right now. They don’t feel strong like they’re under me. I don’t think it’s really muscle loss. It’s just a confidence factor and saying the legs are under there that you can shoot like before. I’m using my lower body so much to hit my shots which, you know, today and last week where we hit balls required a lot of upper body shots.
Morikawa’s long game after three days on the Augusta National stand raised some concerns, both in terms of number of balls hit and longest shots. On Monday, his longest drive was 284 yards on 56 shots. Tuesday, it was 280 yards on 45 shots. He also hit 45 balls on Wednesday, with his longest shot being 279.
In his warmup before Thursday’s first round, he hit 41 balls with a long drive of 277 yards.
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Once the adrenaline kicked in, he averaged 310.6 yards from the tee, with his long drive being 314.5 yards. Still, he called some of his drives “little dinks,” noting that the fairways were firm and allowed for a lot of roll.
For the round, he made four bogeys and two birdies.
After the Players Championship, he took his extended break in order to be ready for the Masters.
“Of all the events, this is probably not the one I want to skip,” he said of the Masters. “You never know if you’re going to find a little bit of luck and be able to figure something out. So we were able to do that today, and hopefully we can do that for another three days.”
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: At the 2026 Masters, Collin Morikawa struggles with confidence issues after injury.
