Collin Morikawa points out what is ‘amazing’ about his new caddie Joe Greiner and says he’s so ‘excited’

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Collin Morikawa opened his Truist Championship account with a seven-under-par 63, and is two shots adrift of first round leader Keith Mitchell.

Morikawa has been in fine form this season, but he’s still waiting for his first PGA Tour win of 2025.

In fact, the 28-year-old is without a victory since October 2023, and he’ll be praying that he gets back in the winner’s circle at the Truist Championship.

Morikawa officially split with long-term caddie JJ Jakovac last week, and now he begins a new era with Joe Greiner on his bag.

The two-time major champion clearly thought it was time for a change. Now his clubs need to start doing the talking.

It is common knowledge that Morikawa is one of the best and most consistent ball-strikers in the game.

And he was certainly on song at Philadelphia Cricket Club on Thursday afternoon.

Collin Morikawa points out what is ‘amazing’ about his new caddie Joe Greiner

Greiner split with Max Homa back in April, before filling in on Justin Thomas’s bag at The RBC Heritage three weeks ago.

Thomas won that week, but reunited with his long-term caddie Matt Minister immediately after.

And then not long after that, Greiner got a permanent gig on Morikawa’s bag.

Morikawa responded when asked what it was like with Greiner on the bag for the first time in competition.

He said, “It was awesome. Uh, look, anything new is going to be interesting and it’s going to be a learning curve, but at the end of the day, like, right now, I have to take full accountability for how I’m describing shots to him, how we’re going through it.

“It’s not as simple as, you know, 150 yards, hit it 155. Like, I don’t do numbers like that, so there’s going to be this learning curve, but I think we did a really good job of just being really decisive on what we were going to do, if you hit a little bit offline or a little bit of a bad swing, like, there’s answers to it, and like I said, I just have to take accountability for what I’m doing out there.”

“I feel like, there’s a lot of disagreement among golf fans, like, is a caddie really helping those shots, pars, birdies, and bogies, or is he, you know, it’s huge.

“Look, I mean, I think what has happened over the past week probably surprised a lot of people. It’s not like I’ve been playing poorly. I’ve had some good finishes this year, but it’s a true partnership out there, when you’re going back and forth and you have a lot of dialogue, not just over the shot, but as you’re going through the holes. I mean, look, we’re out there for five hours and more, you know, through the warm up and everything. So we spend a lot of time together. We’re bouncing back ideas, talking just about anything, and it’s a whole mood and vibe that you’re looking for. It’s not always going to be perfect, but, you know, it was really, really nice today.”

“But what was great when I, you know, talked to Joe is that he’s just, we’re always willing to learn, we’re always willing to say, ‘how do we get better?’ I think he’s still amazing at what he does, but it’s always pushing the boundaries of like, what can we do better tomorrow? How do we improve? So that’s kind of how I’ve always looked at it. And I’m very excited about the future.”

Morikawa was certainly in fine form on the opening day of the Truist Championship, and now he’ll be looking to build on that by going low on Friday.

Exceptional iron play has returned for Morikawa

The two-time major winner really struggled on tour last season.

And it’s clear to see what was holding him back.

The decline in his iron play was significant in 2024, as shown by the statistics below:

Morikawa was in imperious form when hitting his approaches to the greens on day one of the Truist Championship.

He hit 16 out of 18 greens and was ranked 19th in strokes gained ‘approach to green’.

This could well be the week when Morikawa gets back inside the winner’s circle.