Collin Morikawa is obsessed with winning. At first glance, it seems like a positive feeling in an athlete, denoting ambition and passion for glory. But at the same time, it can be very dangerous. The desire is magnificent, irreproachable, but when it becomes an obsession, be careful, because there comes a time when it can become entrenched and the snowball becomes unmanageable. All this comes because the Californian golfer has acknowledged his enormous frustration over what happened on Sunday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. As you know, he was leading the tournament throughout the final day until he was overtaken in the final stretch by Russell Henley and had no response.
Morikawa is tired of not winning, or more specifically, of winning little. His last victory dates back to the ZOZO Championship in 2023. The previous one was already in 2021. In four years, he has achieved a single triumph. Very little for the place where he himself has set the bar. But of course, to grow in any area of life, the most important thing is to make a good diagnosis and locate the problem. Morikawa said this Tuesday that pressure does not affect him, that he likes it and cited as examples his shot on the 17th hole at Bay Hill, par 3, and the drive on the 18th hole. Morikawa boasts of hitting two very good shots at a moment of maximum tension, as just on the 16th Henley had moved one ahead. His final analysis of what he is missing to win is that he needs to play with more determination on Sundays.
“I like the pressure. Yes, I want it. I didn’t feel like I was hitting it great all day, and on 17, a very, very difficult hole, I hit a pretty good shot and the wind just didn’t carry it all the way. I left myself a 25-foot putt. Hitting that shot when I didn’t feel great and then even on 18 hitting a great drive when I knew I had to hit the fairway means that when I need something, I get it. I think for me on Sundays I just have to play with more urgency. It’s there, but deep down it’s not. And I think I can do a little better at that,” he assures.
His remedy for what happens to him on Sundays is to play with more urgency, which is something like having a greater killer instinct to achieve birdies when you have the chance and to hold on if problems arise. But of course, the remedy is of little use if the diagnosis is wrong and in Morikawa’s case, at least, there are seams. The first thing is that he didn’t leave the ball at 25 feet on 17. He left it at 40. Which is not the same. It goes from being a reasonable birdie chance, difficult but possible, to a very unlikely one. It was a good shot, but not a great shot. The second is that yes, his drive on 18 was huge, but his second shot was really poor, overprotecting from the water when he should have been aiming for the flag.
This is what can happen when a desire becomes an obsession, which can cloud judgment. Morikawa admits he ended up very angry on Sunday and it seems he hasn’t gotten over it yet. Basically because it seems he lives angry or bitter about that absence of victory and perhaps the first step to winning again is to lay it down and admit that it is very difficult, even if it costs him.
On Sunday, he didn’t speak to the journalists after the tournament and explained it this way. “I was hot. Angry. Like I don’t owe anyone anything. No offense to you, but I didn’t want to be around anyone at that moment. I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I didn’t need any sorry. I didn’t need any ‘well played’. I was just angry. I understand that you are there to decipher how we play and how things went, but from my perspective, I didn’t want to talk to anyone and it was the fairest thing for me. I know where I am and my golf. I just want to win. I have to be able to close it and it will depend only on me. I’m the one hitting the shot. I’m the one executing the shots, hitting, doing what I need to do. We all know what happened. I don’t need embellishments. I’m not up for any crap like it’s okay, good job, we’re improving, like we’re going to win next week…”.
Morikawa’s wound is open and runs the risk of not closing as long as he continues to analyse golf as something where only winning counts. “The satisfaction you get after winning is incredible. Because you were the best player that week. Nothing else counts. If you find comfort in the fact that, oh, man, winning is really hard, that mentality doesn’t work for me. I don’t want to be there. I come here to try to win every week. I haven’t done it and no one has ever done it, but that’s my mentality. I know it’s hard, but to hell with it; I want the challenge. I want it to be hard. I want everyone to come for me. I want the eyes on me. I want the pressure and for people to say I haven’t performed on Sundays. I know I’ve done it before in the past and it’s just small things that need to change,” he states.
So, victory more as a revenge than the happy consequence of a job well done. Is it the way to close tournaments again as he did in 2019? Maybe it works for Morikawa, but it doesn’t seem the most ideal.
