'You Can't Play Golf Like That' - Collin Morikawa In Zozo Championship Contention Despite Driver Struggles

Despite hitting just seven of 26 fairways across rounds two and three at this week’s Zozo Championship in Japan, Collin Morikawa finds himself within striking distance of a first PGA Tour win since landing The Open in 2021.

After hitting seven of the 13 landing strips throughout a six-under first round, Morikawa managed to locate just three on Friday and only four on Saturday - both in blustery conditions - leading him to admit “you can't play golf like that” following the third round’s play.

“It wasn’t an inability to handle the wind, it was just an inability to hit fairways. And that continued today, so it wasn’t just the wind,” Morikawa said.

“I want to figure it out because playing out of these fairways, you can hit some long drives with how firm the fairways are getting. Greens are getting a lot firmer, so it’s going to be even more apparent to want to be in the fairway and on those greens (on Sunday).”

Yet, despite his apparent struggles with the driver, the two-time Major winner gave himself plenty of birdie opportunities to recover - and he has done just that, sitting two shots behind Justin Suh on seven under ahead of Sunday’s finale at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club.

Morikawa’s Saturday began in nightmare fashion as he recorded a double-bogey on the first - a product of being forced to take an unplayable lie penalty when his ball came to rest against a tree - before three-putting on the par-four fourth to shoot a five.

But after finding himself nine back of the lead early on, the six-time winner on Tour rallied and produced a magnificent spell of golf that helped him to seven-under through the final 13 holes.

Reacting to his third round, Morikawa said: “Yeah, I haven't had a round like that in a while. I think it just shows that my head's in the right space. When you're three over through four, all I was trying to do was get back to even par through nine. At the end of the day, even if I shot even par, I would have been pleased because out here you can get yourself in trouble pretty quickly.”

The 26-year-old endured a tumultuous front nine but ultimately emerged unscathed as a result of three birdies in a row on six, seven, and eight.

Dissecting the first half of his day and explaining how he found the inspiration to come back fighting, Morikawa said: “Nothing changed. I had the few birdies on the front nine, the little string of, what was it, 6, 7, 8. You know, all those felt good. I knew there were a lot of holes [left]. The double [on one] was just compounded by mistake after mistake. Unfortunately, I was up against a tree, took an unplayable. The three-putt on 4 was just, that stuff shouldn't happen but it did.

“I knew I was still hitting my irons good, I just had to give myself opportunities. And I've seen that the past couple days, even though yesterday was a bad score, I just kept my head down and kept grinding at it.

“I just need to play out of the fairway. I still didn't do that enough. I don't know how many fairways I hit today, but it wasn't enough. I think if I do that tomorrow, I'll give myself a good chance come nine holes.”