It may seem like Scottie Scheffler wins every tournament he plays. Especially after the World No. 1 won his first start of the season. But while he finished T4 at last week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Scheffler didn’t win. Collin Morikawa did.
Morikawa’s victory was the culmination of a lengthy pursuit to refine his game, and the payoff “took a lot of work” and “trial and error,” as he explained in his press conference ahead of this week’s 2026 Genesis Invitational.
But the two-time major champion also shared a major revelation he’s had about golf that helped him top the World No. 1 to win his first PGA Tour event since 2023.
How Morikawa refined his game to end winless drought
From 2019-2023, Morikawa captured six victories, with two major titles among them (at the 2020 PGA Championship and 2021 Open Championship). But after winning the 2023 Zozo Championship, Morikawa’s elite game seemed to disappear.
He went winless in 2024, and then again failed to earn a PGA Tour title in 2025. He still finished second in the 2024 FedEx Cup standings but he fell to 19th last season.
His struggles forced to him to question what was going wrong with his game, which led to months of hard work to try to get back to where he was earlier in his career.
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“You can look and say, well, what’s wrong; why are you going down these paths, to try and figure it out and trying to get — because I know deep down, I’m not able to go and play that freedom of golf unless I figure something out,” Morikawa explained.
But sometimes overthinking can become a detriment to improving one’s game, as Morikawa said happened to him earlier in his career.
“Now, a lot of the times I think you can get in your own way where you start adding too much and you’re trying too much. I think if I look back early on in my career, yeah, maybe you tried to get better in one area but then you forgot to keep getting better in another area, and you lose a little bit,” Morikawa said. “The senses and the style of golf, you kind of lose that, of who you are.”
However, Morikawa was quick to explain that during his recent winless drought, he didn’t “get in his own way.” Instead, he had to first examine and work on every part of his game to reach a point where he could play “free golf” on the course, which finally happened at Pebble Beach.
“I had to keep trying things because if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to go out and play that free golf for four days,” Morikawa said. “I played it for two days last week [at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am], and it obviously won me the tournament. But I want to be able to keep going out, week after week, and play four days of golf like that.”
Morikawa’s revelation: ‘Biggest thing’ I’ve learned about beating the best
While Morikawa admitted he still has plenty of work to do to be completely satisfied with his game, his Pebble Beach win proved that his intensive improvement process is working.
And a major revelation he had about competing against the best golfers in the world had a lot do with his recent success.
That revelation? If you want to beat the best players like Scheffler, you can’t copy what they’re doing. Instead, you have to learn what works best for you and pursue greatness within that framework.
“What I’ve learned the biggest thing is you just cannot copy anyone else. You might be able to take a small little bit, but just because Scottie [Scheffler] is doing something great does not mean I have to go do it,” Morikawa revealed.
He continued: “I think that’s something I have to keep reminding myself is what I’m doing is my thing, and that’s — hopefully I’m putting my best ability to go do it. It doesn’t mean I can’t take good things out of what he’s doing, but I think too many people try and copy that exact whatever formula that says, hey, this is how you’re going to go play good golf.”
Ironically, Scheffler is perhaps the best proof of Morikawa’s point. He’s ridden a completely homegrown swing to a stretch of dominance only comparable to Tiger Woods’ greatest heights.
Collin Morikawa explains why he doesn’t use a yardage book at home
Earlier in his pre-tournament press conference at Riviera, Morikawa was asked this: if he were to stop overthinking his game and give up on the constant improvement process he had described in detail, would he still be good at golf?
In response, Morikawa admitted much of his practice comes from “playing with the guys at home.” But he also explained the massive difference between rounds with friends and tournament golf.
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“I think what you’re describing is kind of playing when you’re at home sometimes and playing with the guys. A lot of my practice is playing against the guys at home. It doesn’t matter the amount of money you’re playing for, doesn’t matter what’s on the line. It’s always different than playing in a tournament. It is,” Morikawa explained.
To highlight his point, he revealed another interesting factoid about his practice: When he plays casual rounds, he never uses a yardage book.
“Conversing between your caddie, looking at yardage — I don’t look at a yardage book at home. I don’t know anyone looks at a yardage book when they’re at home. If they do, props to them,” Morikawa joked. “But it’s a very different rhythm of things. I think you just have to be able to, in a tournament, really hone in on those skills and figure out what works for you.”
