{"id":3149,"date":"2026-05-25T13:38:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T13:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/3149\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T13:38:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T13:38:26","slug":"collin-morikawas-masters-round-one-of-the-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/3149\/","title":{"rendered":"Collin Morikawa&#8217;s Masters round &#8216;one of the best&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>April 11, 2026, 5:54 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p>Collin Morikawa is playing through back issues at the Masters Tournament.He withdrew from the Players Championship last month due to back pain.Morikawa considers his performance one of the best of his career despite the injury.He played his final four holes of the third round in 4-under par.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Collin Morikawa owns a pair of major championships and seven PGA Tour wins.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Yet following a Saturday 68 at Augusta National Golf Club, where Morikawa claims to be swinging at \u201c50 percent\u201d because of back issues, the 29-year-old put his Round 3 performance at the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/golf\/pga\/masters\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Masters Tournament<\/a> into perspective.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">\u201cIt&#8217;s going to be one of the best tournaments in my entire career,\u201d said Morikawa, with 18 holes to play. \u201cEvery step out there isn\u2019t easy, and I&#8217;m just kind of one step at a time. But I&#8217;m really proud of myself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More: <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/golf\/pga\/masters\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-t-l=\":b|e|spike click:3|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\">Masters 2026 hub: Scores, stories, more<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Last month, Morikawa withdrew from the Players Championship with back pain and hadn\u2019t competed again until this week.<\/p>\n<p>Need a news break? <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (play)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/play.usatoday.com\/?itm_source=SPIKE&amp;itm_campaign=PLAYSPIKE&amp;itm_medium=ONSITE\">Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Following an opening 74, Collin has posted consecutive rounds in the 60s \u2014 69 and 68, respectively.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">\u201cI&#8217;m over the moon right now, and I know I have one more day,\u201d Morikawa said.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" style=\"height:440px\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/89559431007-usatsi-28701691-168389668-lowres.jpg\" data-gl- decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Apr 10, 2026; Augusta, Georgia, USA; Collin Morikawa plays his shot on the twelfth tee during the second round of the Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Morikawa expanded on his physical discomfort and how it impacts decision-making.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">\u201cWhen I get to hole nine, hole 10, hole 11, downhill lies are near impossible because I don&#8217;t want to fire into my left side,\u201d Collin said. \u201cI\u2019m just trying to hit middle of the green, walk away with two-putt pars, and I&#8217;ve done a decent job with that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">On moving day, Morikawa played his final four holes in 4-under (eagle-birdie-birdie-par) and was asked where the day ranks among his career.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"gnt_em_cp_cw_i\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/82975476007-usatsi-25869115.jpg\" data-gl- decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">\u201cIt&#8217;s going to be in its own category,\u201d Morikawa said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April 11, 2026, 5:54 p.m. ET Collin Morikawa is playing through back issues at the Masters Tournament.He withdrew&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[58,1553,1769,2287,2288,65,68,1241,1242,69,193,67,187,1244,62],"class_list":["post-3149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-collin-morikawa","tag-accessfree","tag-collin-morikawa","tag-sourceaugusta-chronicle","tag-sstssportsgolfmajorsmasters","tag-sstsnthe-masters","tag-taggolf","tag-taginternational-sports-competitions","tag-tagmasters-tournament-2025","tag-tagmasters-tournament-2026","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagpga-tour","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagstory-highlights-ai-enabled","tag-tagthe-players-championship","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}