Collin Morikawa is only 24 years old, but he already has two major championships and three other PGA Tour victories to his name. He’s also established himself as one of the best ball strikers in the game of golf.
Ahead of the 2021 CJ Cup – where Morikawa finished second to Rory McIlroy – I had the opportunity to take up-close photos of his golf equipment. After further inspection, I noticed a few interesting things from the young superstar’s setup.
Below are 4 things I learned while inspecting Morikawa’s golf clubs.
1) He hits the center of the face a lot… but not every time
As one of the purest hitters on the PGA Tour, it’s expected that Morikawa would have some impressive wear marks on his clubs. A closer look at his TaylorMade SIM Rocket 3-wood and SIM2 5-wood reveals he does, in fact, flush the ball on most occasions. But not every single time. Judging by the wear marks on his face, his misses appear to be on the toe portion on slight misfires.
For everyday golfers, that means you shouldn’t be so hard on yourself when you miss the center of the face. Even Morikawa does from time to time.
2) Dial in your driver for better looks and performance
When you purchase a golf club, the goal should be to make it look, work and feel best for you. Getting fit by a professional fitter is the best way to ensure your driver is perfectly dialed in, but there are ways to make adjustments on your own.
Morikawa, for example, has an 8-degree TaylorMade SIM driver with a hosel setting that’s been adjusted for higher loft; notice how the arrow on the hosel is pointed to the line that’s two clicks to the left of standard, toward the “higher” setting. This means that the driver will launch slightly higher than it would in the standard loft position, which is better for golfers who struggle with a ball flight that’s too low.
Interestingly, he’s also used a black Sharpie to fill in the inner scoring lines on his driver face, possibly to reduce some visual distractions. He’s not the only golfer to make custom markings on his clubs using a Sharpie, either. Tiger Woods famously fills in the “Ping” lettering on the grip of his Scotty Cameron Newport 2 putter with a black marker, as well.
The lesson here is to not feel weird about making custom adjustments to your golf clubs. They are supposed to be your tools to help you play better and enjoy the game more.
3) Use the irons that are right for you
Morikawa has freakish accuracy with his irons, and he’s said to hit his 6-iron as accurately as other elite players with their pitching wedge. As good as he is, however, he doesn’t use blade irons through his entire set. Morikawa uses a combination of TaylorMade P-730 irons (7-PW), P-7MC irons (5 and 6) and a P-770 4-iron to take advantage of greater forgiveness where he needs it.
For amateurs, if you notice that you’re losing accuracy, distance or height when hitting long irons, maybe it’s time to test out some more forgiving options.
4) Collin seriously loves breakfast
It’s no secret that Morikawa loves to eat breakfast foods of almost all kinds. As an ode to his love of the first meal of the day, Morikawa has a new cereal-inspired Titleist Vokey SM8 56-degree wedge in the bag. Well, actually, the wedge has been bent to 55 degrees.
There are two lessons here: 1) Putting custom stampings on your wedges can be a fun way to express your interests off the golf course, and 2) Your wedges can be bent slightly by a degree or two so that you can dial in the exact yardage numbers you want to hit. Just remember, the bounce of your wedge will change slightly when you change the loft of your wedges or irons.
Want to overhaul your bag for 2021? Find a fitting location near you at GOLF’s affiliate company True Spec Golf. For more on the latest gear news and information, check out our latest Fully Equipped podcast below!
