‘It’s hard to look at the positives’: Morikawa dwells on epic collapse

The American got straight to the point after blowing a six-shot lead at the Sentry Tournament of Champions

A deflated Collin Morikawa admitted it’s “hard to look at the positives” after a devastating collapse at the Sentry Tournament of Champions saw him squander a six-shot lead and gift a soaring Jon Rahm the victory in Hawaii.

Eight shots separated the Ryder Cup rivals after 55 holes at the Plantation Course, but a ruthless 10-under 63 from the Spaniard soon piled the pressure on Morikawa who was simply unable to respond with some low scoring of his own.

Eventually missing out on a sixth PGA Tour title by two shots after a final round 72, Morikawa then digested the loss as a “sadness” and the biggest lowlight of his coveted career to date.

“Sadness. I don’t know. It sucks,” the American said when asked how he was feeling after the collapse. “You work so hard and you give yourself these opportunities and just bad timing on bad shots and kind of added up really quickly.

“[I] don’t know what I’m going to learn from this week, but it just didn’t seem like it was that far off. It really wasn’t. Yeah, it sucks. My game hasn’t felt like that in a very long time. I saw little specs of it throughout kind of the fall season and was never able to put four rounds together. We’re still getting there, but for me I know there’s still a lot of work to do. Obviously it shows today, but I’m willing to put in that work.

Morikawa’s back-nine 39 – which included three bogeys in a row on 14, 15 and 16 – paled in comparison to Rahm’s closing 31, who now picks up a third win in five starts. Pressed on whether he lost the tournament or the Spaniard won it, Morikawa then had the following to say.

“A little bit of both,” the two-time major winner explained. “I mean 1-under on this course is not a good score. It really isn’t. I was 3-under through whatever, six holes. 3-putted 5 as well. He still shot 63. But I still had it within reach. If I don’t make those bogeys and I make par, we’re right there.

“He definitely made the birdies when he needed to. But I also made bogeys. When you’re getting bogeys at that time of the tournament they’re costly. I definitely felt the weight of that.”

Despite having blown a five-shot lead in similar fashion at the 2021 Hero World Challenge, Morikawa admitted his latest mishap hurts more than any other, who will now look to rebound by taking some personal time to clear his head before teeing up at the Farmers Insurance Open, WM Phoenix Open and Genesis Invitational in the coming weeks.

“I would say so,” Morikawa said when asked whether this was the lowlight of his career. “Can’t really think of anything else. Yeah, it’s hard to look at the positives, it really is.

“I’m going to take two days off and enjoy Hawaii a little bit more. It’s not going to be as great, but it will still be good,” Morikawa said. “But, yeah, my mind’s already thinking about what we need to do. It’s going to hurt, but I got to get over it because we’re still in the very early parts of the season.”