Collin Morikawa battles injury fright 

Collin Morikawa was uncomfortable, he said.

He had no trust. 

He was scared. 

“And I’ve never been this scared in my life,” he said, “to go out and play.”

Morikawa’s post-round comments on Thursday sound frightful. And yet, Morikawa is hanging around at the RBC Heritage event, a week after hanging around at the Masters, and about a month after he was forced to withdraw from the Players Championship. The latter looked alarming. Morikawa had taken a practice swing on his second hole at TPC Sawgrass, grabbed his lower back and was done. Because of the injury, he missed three weeks. 

At Augusta National, though, he played 11-under golf over his final three rounds and tied for seventh. And at Harbour Town Golf Links, he’s kept things going. Thursday, he shot a four-under 67, Friday a 68, and he’ll be in the mix for the weekend. Of course, backs are fickle, and he’s being cautious. After his first round, he told reporters that he was swinging at about 50 percent. 

“The body is probably slightly better than that,” he said. “It’s hard to trust the body right now. It’s a very uncomfortable feeling. I had never experienced anything like it until about a month ago. 

“There’s just no trust, and that’s the hardest thing, to say go fire at the shot when you’re trying to play in a tournament because essentially for me I’m trying to last throughout the entire week.”

The concern is what he can handle. For the past three years, he’s battled injuries to his back, but troubles then started in the gym, never on the golf course. 

But a few weeks ago, he said he needed to play in the Masters and that he’d find a way to protect his back “a little bit more.”

“There was a point where it was like, OK, let’s stop pushing to see how far we can get,” Morikawa said, “and let’s see what I can just work with.”

The Masters, he said, was a mini-win. 

“I said it last week: It was one of the best tournaments I could have asked for,” Morikawa said. “Grinded it out, obviously got on some nice runs Saturday and Sunday at the end of the rounds.

“But yeah, this week hopefully we can put together rounds like this and see where we stack up come Sunday.”

On Thursday, he played bogey free. Friday, he played four-under golf over his final nine holes. He said he’s “dinking it around, slapping it.” He said he thought about not playing, but Harbour Town “is one of the flat test courses out here.”

A question, though, is what the weeks ahead will look like. The Masters started a six-week stretch that features three signature events and two majors, and the hope, he said, was to play everything. But time at home might be needed. There, he can experiment. 

“I feel like I’m swinging a little bit better in the motion, at least, but I wouldn’t say I’m putting more effort into it because, like I said, I need to be at home to say, OK, let’s turn up the gears.” Morikawa said. 

“If I do feel a little uncomfortable, at least I’m home, I’m not trying to play a tournament where I essentially need to make it 72 holes.”

Thankfully for him, only 36 remain at the RBC. 

Winning and a $3.6 million first-place check wouldn’t hurt, either. 

“I want to be very healthy,” Morikawa said. “I don’t want to be limping around and being scared of taking a golf ball out of a hole or teeing it up, and unfortunately that’s just where I’m at right now.

“I need to be comfortable in these uncomfortable situations, and these last two weeks are helping me slowly get over it.”

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