Collin Morikawa played a 5-wood from simply off the inexperienced Saturday.
CBS Sports
Saturday’s mic’d-up phase with Collin Morikawa couldn’t have gone a lot better for CBS Sports.
The new apply of giving one participant an AirPod to permit for a two-way mid-round interview between them and the CBS broadcast group for one gap has confirmed a giant hit to this point. Morikawa joins Max Homa, Keith Mitchell and Tom Kim as the first set of guinea pigs for the phase.
For the third spherical of the Genesis Invitational, Morikawa agreed to do the walk-and-talk on Riviera’s iconic drivable par-4 tenth. The tenth, taking part in simply 284 yards Saturday, has a repute as one in every of the hardest quick par-4s on the PGA Tour.
“It’s one of the most loved and sometimes most hated holes,” Morikawa stated after he hit his tee shot.
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And he couldn’t have left his tee shot in a greater spot to show the viewers one thing whereas he was in the sizzling seat. Morikawa reduce a 3-wood simply quick and left of the inexperienced, leaving a couple of 40-foot shot up a delicate slope to the entrance left pin.
The cause this was such an ideal alternative for the viewers? There was no “right way” to play the shot.
“A lot of us immediately take out a 60 [degree wedge], I think that’s some of our favorite clubs,” Morikawa told CBS’s Jim Nantz and Trevor Immelman. “But with this Kikuyu tough and Kikuyu fairways, it simply makes all the pieces a lot harder. You by no means know what the bounce goes to be like. So it’s a guessing recreation. It’s form of taking part in the percentages and what’s going to be the greatest play for me whether or not it’s putter, 5-wood, 8-iron or wedge.
“8-iron, I’d probably never play. But I know there’s a few guys out there that are really good with the bump-and-run.”
Earlier in the spherical, we noticed Tiger Woods putt from properly off the tenth inexperienced in an identical place to Morikawa.
But Morikawa talked about earlier on his stroll down from the tee, that he had played a 5-wood from simply over the placing floor earlier in the week and alluded he was going to do the similar.
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He then talked by way of the shot with caddie J.J. Jakovac. There was a ridge that ran by way of the fairway and onto the entrance a part of the inexperienced and he defined there was no method to choose a shot with a wedge would react.
“I don’t know how the spin is. If it hits here and it scoots, then it’s going to run,” he stated as he walked as much as the entrance fringe of the inexperienced. “Worst case with 5-wood— we trickle it and we’ll get it proper right here [motioning to the front of the green]. And all you’re simply making an attempt to do is feed it alongside there.
“I just don’t know how the bounce is going to be and how it’s going to spin.”
He took the 5-wood, choked up on the grip about two inches and made a placing stroke. The ball climbed up onto the inexperienced, broke arduous proper of the gap, as Morikawa predicted and left him about six toes from the cup, gap excessive. He advised Immelman that was just about the shot he had drawn up.
Morikawa’s quick recreation has been a degree of emphasis this yr as he’s began working with Parker McLachlin. This week at Riviera, Morikawa was No. 1 in Strokes Gained: Around the Green by way of three rounds, selecting up greater than 5 pictures on the subject. He ranked simply 152nd in the stat final season.
“What’s funny is that we can hit the craziest shots,” Morikawa stated after marking his ball. “We can hit the flop pictures. We can hit the plugged bunkers … Look, I had about 15 yards straight forward of me and it seems primary. But it’s about discovering the greatest play, the greatest method to execute that.
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“And that’s what’s been tough is that you want to get creative, but sometimes boring is good and I think a lot of people would agree with that.”
Morikawa ended up lacking the birdie putt, however not by way of any fault of the second shot and viewers at residence realized a ton about his shot choice round the greens. He birdied the subsequent gap however made three bogeys on three of his final 4 to shoot 72. He begins Sunday in a tie for sixth at 7-under.
While the fairway wooden/hybrid bump-and-run isn’t a shot we advocate you attempt on the course with out training first (In my expertise, you get requested, “Do you practice that shot?” each time you apply it to the course anyway) it may be an ideal various to placing from off the inexperienced.
The longer size and extra loft on the fairway wooden assist counteract the slower pace of the fairway reduce, making it so you may make the similar stroke you’d if had been on the inexperienced with a putter.
Plus, in case you wrestle with chipping with a wedge round the greens, the fairway wooden bump seems so much cooler than the putter.
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