Collin Morikawa is in contention at The Masters despite being five shots off the lead and he’s made a bold claim about his chances going into round three.
Morikawa struggled to get going early in his second round as he made four pars and a bogey in the opening five holes.
However, the two-time major winner hit back, carding three birdies in four to round out the front nine before a topsy-turvy back nine saw him make three more birdies but counteract them with two bogeys.
Despite being in good form of late, Morikawa has struggled to get that win he craves and Morikawa has also fell foul of the media due to his antics at Arnold Palmer.
Nevertheless, Morikawa is determined to not go missing in rounds three and four.
Collin Morikawa claims he can win The Masters despite being five back of Justin Rose
Speaking to the media in the immediate aftermath of his second round performance, Morikawa was keen to address the bad start he made before going into detail about how he got out of the slump.
“Very different. I was very patient. I said that yesterday about yesterday’s round. Today I was just in a really bad head space through five holes. Fifth hole might have been the worst putt in the tournament and probably will go down as the worst putt I’ve hit in a long time,” Morikawa said.
“Just had to get out of that. I just had to get out of my own head and start playing golf. Talked to J.J. a little bit and was able to kind of free up after that.”
Going into more detail about his chat with his caddy, Morikawa discussed the mental side of golf and then bullishly suggested he was capable of winning.
“Yeah, look, it’s such a mental game that sometimes you spend so much time out there in your own head and your mind starts to wander. 1, I felt like I hit decent shots. 2, bunker. Picked the wrong number on 2 for my third shot over the green. 3, lay up to have a good wedge, spin it off the green. 4, bad swing.
“It was kind of piling up in the wrong direction. Thankfully I turned it around. I needed to.
“Look, we’re still in this. I’ve got two more days. I don’t know what the weather looks like, but I feel like I still have a shot in this.”
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Collin Morikawa told he’s still in with a chance at Augusta
Things can change so quickly at Augusta National and we saw in round two how Rory McIlroy was able to bounce back from round one disappointment to shoot the lights out with a 66.
For Collin Morikawa, it’s all going to be about staying in the mix and not making silly mistakes.
Indeed, as well as his own confidence, Golf Analyst Smylie Kaufman has also backed Morikawa to be in there.
“Yeah totally, 100 percent [he’s still in the tournament]. Five shots within the lead’s totally fine. Now, the guys at even par, I don’t think those guys have much of a shot, especially with who you’re looking at at the top of the leaderboard. When you see the strength of Rory, Bryson and Justin Rose, who’s obviously playing well, it seems like this thing’s going to get up into the double digits on the weekend,” Kaufman said post round.
With Morikawa not winning since the ZOZO in 2023, The Masters would be the ideal place to break the streak and get back on the podium.
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