Collin Morikawa, looking to snap winless drought, leads at Bay Hill

Collin Morikawa is well aware of the drought. So after his third round at the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Saturday, when NBC Sports reporter Cara Banks reminded him that he hasn’t won on the PGA Tour in 502 days, Morikawa could only smile.

“Thank you for putting that in exact days,” he joked. “I hope you have the hours and minutes.”

Morikawa certainly didn’t know how many days had passed since his last win, but he would admit he’s been anxiously awaiting the next victory.

His last win came about a year and a half ago, when he won the Zozo Championship in October 2023. That also snapped a winless streak of over two years, since it was his first victory since the 2021 Open Championship.

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Now he’s in prime position to get his 7th PGA Tour victory come Sunday. Morikawa shot a five-under 67 on a difficult Saturday at Bay Hill to get to 10 under, and he’ll start the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational with a one-shot lead over Russell Henley and two shots clear of Corey Conners. Jason Day is three behind, and no other player is within four.

This is his fifth career 54-hole lead or co-lead, and he’s 1 for 4 in converting those to victories.

“I’ve gone longer [without a win], but honestly I look back at last year and it never felt like I had my game to just go out and just play golf,” Morikawa said. “I felt like I was always kind of, you show up on Sunday, and not that I was guessing, but you still were fighting something and trying to just make it work. It’s hard to win like that. I would say the guys that are winning on a constant basis, they’re playing free, and that’s how I’m going to go out tomorrow.”

To be fair, it’s kind of silly to even call this a drought. Winning golf tournaments is hard, and Morikawa has played well despite winning. He had eight top 10s and two runner-up finishes last season and finished second in the FedEx Cup. He added another second-place finish at The Sentry in January, and he’s finished T17 at his other two starts, Pebble Beach and the Genesis.

He’s basically done everything but win.

“I look back at last year, obviously at the end of the year, and I never felt like my game was fully in control. And I showed up in Hawaii and I felt like the eight weeks I put in was like really, really good work,” Morikawa said. “It’s tough to say sometimes when you feel good, but there’s a difference of like going into a week and finding something that week and just kind of playing with it, which you can win, I’ve done it in the past. But if you want to go on a long run or you want to go on a nice stretch, you really have to be in control.

“Like even on the missed shots. Like today I missed a few. You wouldn’t know, but they ended up well. So it’s just, there’s a slight difference of where I have been to where I am now to even a few weeks ago. Small little things.”

As a 28-year-old pro with two major titles, Morikawa’s resume is already polished. But adding a title from a Signature Event at Arnie’s place wouldn’t hurt.