World No.3 Collin Morikawa has again distanced himself from the upcoming LIV Invitational Series, which gets under way at the Centurion Club in London in June.
In recent days, speculation has grown as to the identities of the players who’ll take part in the series, with Sergio Garcia linked with the tournament and Phil Mickelson requesting release from the PGA Tour to open a path to playing in the first event.
Morikawa pledged his allegiance to the Tour before February’s Genesis Invitational, and, speaking at a media day press conference for the 150th Open Championship, taking place at St Andrews in July, the 25-year-old’s stance doesn’t appear to have wavered. He said: “Look, I said at Riviera earlier this year in, I believe, February that my alliance is to the PGA Tour. Will I still watch what’s going on? I mean, yeah. You’re curious to what’s going on. But do I care who’s going to be playing, or do I care who’s going to be making money? No, not at all."
Morikawa doesn’t seem to be in the mood for any distractions as the year progresses and was very clear about his priorities for the rest of 2022. He said: "At the end of the day, I’m here to win Majors. I’m here to win PGA Tour tournaments. Hopefully, return and defend my Race to Dubai title. There’s a lot of other things that are on my mind and a lot of goals that I set at the beginning of the year that I look forward to."
"So far, through about five months or four months, I haven’t really won, or I haven’t won. It’s not I haven’t really won. I haven’t won at all. So I want to get back out there. I want to go back out and win another couple Majors somehow and finish off this kind of year on a good note. I look forward to the rest of the year for sure.”
With Morikawa reiterating his stance on the LIV Invitational Series, it's looking increasingly likely that the current World No.15, Louis Oosthuizen, will be its highest-ranked player.
