PONTE VEDRA BEACH — Collin Morikawa's promising 2026 PGA Tour season pivoted on a single light practice swing. The seven-time PGA Tour winner captured the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in mid-February and sat atop the FedExCup Standings, then grabbed his lower back during his routine on the tee box at THE PLAYERS Championship and withdrew shortly after as peers Ludvig Aberg and Si Woo Kim looked on.
"The rest of the season after THE PLAYERS everything kind of changed," Morikawa said in a recent sit-down interview. "I truly have never had any trauma, I would say, on the golf course. Everything — I've hurt myself, whatever, it's always been away from the golf course in the gym. So when you hurt yourself on the golf course for a very very light swing, you get freaked out." He missed roughly a month before returning at April's Masters Tournament, where he finished in the top-10 despite calling it the toughest stretch he has faced. "That was probably the most difficult little stretch of golf that I've ever had to play," Morikawa stated. "My hardest tee shot that I had to hit was the Tuesday at the Masters. I've never been nervous hitting a shot on a Tuesday."
Morikawa said his daily preparation and tournament approach changed completely. "Everything with how I kind of go about my business throughout the days and the weeks and these tournaments have changed a lot. Certain shots, I just can't play, but in that sense, that's where I have to go and play golf," he said. Only his inner circle grasped the full toll. "Truly just my team knows, and especially just me and Mark, my caddie, know how difficult this season was," Morikawa said. "The shots we couldn't hit, so we had to do something else. The lines we had to take. I'd say the biggest lesson is to be resilient, to grind through the things that feel uncomfortable. Just because you're uncomfortable doesn't mean you can't do it."
"I think the mind has so much power," Morikawa noted. "It can push you in the wrong direction sometimes, but you also can overcome that if you just take it slow." Now set to compete for the USA at the Presidents Cup, Morikawa appears to be feeling better, with the upcoming offseason offering a chance to reset after a season defined by adaptation.